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The concept of information is key to both cybernetics and information research. Despite this common ground, the impact of cybernetic research in information studies has been limited in comparison with other scholarly fields (see Tunstel et al., 2021). The recent book The evolutionary dynamics of discursive knowledge is arguably a significant and long-waited contribution to both cybernetics and information research. The author, Loet Leydesdorff, is Professor Emeritus in the Dynamics of Scientific Communication and Technological Innovation at the University of Amsterdam. This publication presents previous works by Leydesdorff in a new version. Earlier works are revised and convincingly combined in a theoretical system that stems from the author’s long career, here presented in a unitary fashion.

The book is divided into three parts, and its primary focus, as the title suggests, is set on the systems of discursive knowledge (ie, the meanings created from the sharing of information) and its evolutionary patterns (ie, the patterns of change embedded in the dynamics of communication). The first section is dedicated to scholarly communication as a cybernetic system (chapters 2-4). The Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations is treated as an empirical exemplification of this sociocybernetic approach (chapters 5-7). The last section discusses the self-organisation of communication systems (or, in more cybernetic terms, their autopoiesis). This last part proceeds then to computer-aided simulations for the study of innovation. The author concludes the book by proposing the agenda for an empirical philosophy of science (chapters 8-11 …