Leading scholars from the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand question whether current policies relating to knowledge, learning and assessment are consistent with the kinds of workers and skills required for the knowledge economy?

This book addresses the recent impact of the ‘knowledge-based economy’ as an economic ‘imaginary’ and as a set of real economic developments on education, and especially higher education in Europe, including educational strategies and policies such as those of the Bologna process on a European scale.

Revolutionary account of the transformative potential of the knowledge economy Adam Smith and Karl Marx recognized that the best way to understand the economy is to study the most advanced practice of production. Today that practice is no longer conventional manufacturing: it is the radically innovative vanguard known as the knowledge economy. In every part of the production system it remains a fringe excluding the vast majority of workers and businesses. This book explores the hidden nature of the knowledge economy and its possible futures. The confinement of the knowledge economy to these insular vanguards has become a driver of economic stagnation and inequality throughout the world. Traditional mass production has stopped working as a shortcut to economic growth. But the alternative—a deepened and socially inclusive form of the knowledge economy—continues to lie beyond reach in even the richest countries. The shape of contemporary politics on both the left and the right reflects a failure to come to terms with this dilemma and to overcome it. Unger explains the knowledge economy in the truncated and confined form that it has today and proposes the way to a knowledge economy for the many: changes not just in economic institutions but also in education, culture, and politics. Just as Smith and Marx did in their time, he uses an understanding of the most advanced practice of production to rethink both economics and the economy as a whole.

A rigorous, pathbreaking analysis demonstrating that a country's prosperity is directly related in the long run to the skills of its population. In this book Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann make a simple, central claim, developed with rigorous theoretical and empirical support: knowledge is the key to a country's development. Of course, every country acknowledges the importance of developing human capital, but Hanushek and Woessmann argue that message has become distorted, with politicians and researchers concentrating not on valued skills but on proxies for them. The common focus is on school attainment, although time in school provides a very misleading picture of how skills enter into development. Hanushek and Woessmann contend that the cognitive skills of the population—which they term the “knowledge capital” of a nation—are essential to long-run prosperity. Hanushek and Woessmann subject their hypotheses about the relationship between cognitive skills (as consistently measured by international student assessments) and economic growth to a series of tests, including alternate specifications, different subsets of countries, and econometric analysis of causal interpretations. They find that their main results are remarkably robust, and equally applicable to developing and developed countries. They demonstrate, for example, that the “Latin American growth puzzle” and the “East Asian miracle” can be explained by these regions' knowledge capital. Turning to the policy implications of their argument, they call for an education system that develops effective accountability, promotes choice and competition, and provides direct rewards for good performance.

This book introduces a new perspective on the knowledge economy and the learning challenge it presents for individuals, communities and societies. It demonstrates that the debate about the role of knowledge in the economy has been framed in terms of Cartesian notions of objective and subjective knowledge and human capital notions that the aim of learning is to support people to adapt to a pre-given economic reality. The book argues that these framings rest on questionable assumptions about knowledge and learning and, in the process, deflect us from asking questions about our future economic, political and social direction. Taking ideas from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Social Theory and the Philosophy of Mind as its starting point, the book rethinks the relation between knowledge, learning and human activity. It explores this rethinking through the form of learning—Professional, Vocational and Workplace—most closely associated with the use of knowledge for economic, political and social purposes.

Universities are fundamental to the contemporary knowledge economy. They directly and indirectly support economic growth in both developing and advanced economies. In addition to their traditional teaching and research functions, they often also have important roles in supporting regional development and urban regeneration, as well as involvement in fostering international relations, in , cultural developments and in enhancing social cohesion. While higher education institutions in many countries are often assigned key roles in economic and social policy prescriptions, exactly what those roles are and how they should be carried out are often unclear. Universities and the Knowledge Economy provides a much-needed theoretical and empirical analysis of these functions, taking a critical look at the complex connections between knowledge creation, the knowledge economy, and higher education today. This volume: Brings together work on these topics by international experts, reporting and analysing recent policy developments and research Shows the significance of the university’s role in the knowledge economy, and the precise roles that it can play. Presents a range of studies showing how universities interact with other knowledge producers and users, and how these interactions can be managed to achieve the most effective applications of knowledge Universities are multi-faceted institutions that everywhere are accorded special status. Universities and the Knowledge Economy examines how these institutions carry our knowledge production and application, and how their distinctive characters affect what they do. . This title is of both intellectual and operational relevance, and would be suitable for those interested in higher education and policy and practice, and in the theory of higher education. Paul Temple is Reader in Higher Education Management and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

This book presents new evidence concerning the influential role of context and institutions on the relations between knowledge, innovation, clusters and learning. From a truly international perspective, the expert contributors capture the most interesting and relevant aspects of knowledge economy. They explore an evolutionary explanation of how culture can play a significant role in learning and the development of skills. Presenting new data and theory developments, this insightful book reveals how changes in the dynamics of knowledge influence the circumstances under which innovation occurs. It also examines cluster development in the knowledge economy, from regional to virtual space. This volume will prove invaluable to academics and researchers who are interested in exploring new ideas surrounding the knowledge economy. Those employed in consultant firms and the public sector, where an understanding of the knowledge economy is important, will also find plenty of relevant information in this enriching compendium.

This book is the first to articulate and challenge the consensus on the right and left that knowledge is the key to any problem, demonstrating how the left’s embrace of knowledge productivity keeps it trapped within capital’s circuits. As the knowledge economy has forced questions of education to the forefront, the book engages pedagogy as an underlying yet neglected motor of capitalism and its forms of oppression. Most importantly, it assembles new pedagogical resources for responding to the range of injustices that permeate our world. Building on yet critiquing the Marxist notion of the general intellect, Derek R. Ford theorizes stupidity as a necessary alternative pedagogical logic, an anti-value that is infinitely mute and unproductive.

Education in the Creative Economy explores the need for new forms of learning and education that are most conducive to supporting student development in a creative society. Just as the assembly line shifted the key factor of production from labor to capital, digital networks are now shifting the key factor of production from capital to innovation. Beyond conventional discussions on the knowledge economy, many scholars now suggest that digital technologies are fomenting a shift in advanced economies from mass production to cultural innovation. This edited volume, which includes contributions from renowned scholars like Richard Florida, Charles Landry, and John Howkins, is a key resource for policymakers, researchers, teachers and journalists to assist them to better understand the contours of the creative economy and consider effective strategies for linking education to creative practice. In addition to arguments for investing in the knowledge economy through STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math), this collection explores the growing importance of art, design and digital media as vehicles for creativity and innovation.

This book presents a comprehensive, international and up-to-date review of the key contributions of information services to the Knowledge Economy. Chapters contributed by experts in different areas of LIS focus on the crucial roles libraries, archives and museums are playing in their home institutions -private, public, non-profit-, as much as their impact on the economy and society as a whole. Boosting the Knowledge Economy: Key Contributions from Information Services in Educational, Cultural, and Corporate Environments has a particular interest in learning services, exploring principles and strategies for their implementation - from marketing strategy to analytics -, and covers implications for the LIS profession. - Provides new insights into the value of information services in the context of the Knowledge Economy - Presents an overview and analysis of cutting-edge practices in information services, with a particular focus on learning services and their particular contribution to LAMs' (Libraries, Archives, and Museums) brand awareness and to social capital building - Introduces a collaborative reflection on the role of information professionals at challenging times, with implications for the design of educational programs in the informationfield