Sect. 1. Introduction -- 1. Knowledge, communication, reflexive creativity and social change / Arnaud Sales, Marcel Fournier and Yan Senechal -- Sect. 2. Knowledge and social change in contemporary societies -- 2. Modern societies as knowledge societies / Nico Stehr -- 3. Knowledge and societal change : institutional coordination and the evolution of organizational populations / Jerald Hage -- Sect. 3. New information technologies and communication, communities and public sphere -- 4. Mobilities, networks and communities / John Urry -- 5. Information technology and the international public sphere / Craig Calhoun -- 6. Creativity in an Orwellian key : a sceptic's guide to the post-sociological imaginary / Steve Fuller -- Sect. 4. Creativity and communication in the production of knowledge -- 7. Between science and rhetoric : a recurrent debate on the role of communication and creativity in the definition of knowledge / Philippe Breton -- 8. High cognitive complexity and the making of major scientific discoveries / J. Rogers Hollingsworth -- 9. The creativity of intellectual networks and the struggle over attention space / Randall Collins -- 10. Evaluating creative minds : the assessment of originality in peer review / Michele Lamont, Marcel Fournier, Joshua Guetzkow, Gregoire Mallard and Roxane Bernier.