Joseph Stiglitz has a really important term for me to define and understand what knowledge is, economically and culturally. He defines it as a global public good, on the sense that it is non rival and non excludable. Apart from a book he wrote called "Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century", I highly recommend two articles.
Apart from a book he wrote called "Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century", I highly recommend two articles.
The first on is short and important to give a first quick understanding on the term: http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2007/09/08/article_knowledge_as_a_global_public_good.html.
The second is actually a Questions and Answers written by the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) on Knowledge as a Global Public Good: http://web.undp.org/globalpublicgoods/Q-A/qa.pdf.