The promotion of knowledge economies and societies, equated with the mobile subject as bearer of technological, managerial and cosmopolitan competences, on the one hand, and insecurities about social order and national identities, on the other, have in the past few years led to increasing polarisation between skilled migrants and those deemed to lack useful skills. The former are considered to be bearers of human capital and have the capacity to assimilate seamlessly and are therefore worthy of citizenship; the latter (...) are likely to pose problems of assimilation and dependency due to their economic and cultural ‘otherness’ and offered a transient status and partial citizenship by receiving states. In the European context this trend has been reinforced by the redrawing of European geopolitical space creating new boundaries of exclusion and social justice. The emphasis on the knowledge economy also generates gender inequalities and stratifications based on skills and types of knowledge with implications for citizenship and social justice. (shrink)

This essay suggests that the 21st century knowledge economy represents a moderate form of moral community. To show this I first clarify the ideas of moral community and a knowledge economy. The latter reflects the emergence of high volume, high speed, high precision (or +VSP) electronic communications and exchange networks, both of which embody the ethical value of reciprocity. One result has been the emergence of commercially oriented knowledge communities. In conclusion, the +VSP communications (...) class='Hi'>knowledge economy raises several problems, about truth, social turbulence, and democratic community. (shrink)

This chapter surveys the dominant landscape of the knowledge economy today, from right to left, via the center. Each recognizes the increasingly central role of knowledge in the production and reproduction of economic value, social relations, and life. Because they’re taking different class viewpoints, however, they tell contrasting narratives, utilize different frameworks, and, clearly, have different goals in mind. Whereas the right wants to understand knowledge production in order to more effectively harness or exploit it for (...) capitalist accumulation, those critical of the hegemonic capitalist takes on the knowledge economy identify and probe at its limitations and restrictions, in which they locate new possibilities for resistance and resources for a movement beyond the accumulation of capital. They do so by diagnosing the new forms of exploitation and oppression in the knowledge economy and the attendant potentialities for resistance and transformation that lie within. (shrink)

This paper considers the impact that globalization and the knowledge economy have on the protection and promotion of indigenous knowledge. It is asserted that globalization and the knowledge economy have opened up the world and facilitated the flow of information and knowledge. However, the flow of knowledge has been governed by uneven economic and political power between the developed countries and the devel-oping countries. This has a number of ramifications for IK. The dilemma (...) faced is that whichever method is taken to protect IK exposes IK to some misappropriation. Protecting it through IPR is also fraught with problems. Documenting IK exposes IK to the public domain and makes it that much easier to be misused. However, not protecting IK runs the danger of having it disappear as the custodians holding it die off, or as communities become swamped by the effects of globalization. The conclu-sion therefore is that governments have to take more interest in protecting, promoting and using IK than they have been doing. (shrink)

In pedagogy, as in life generally, there are moral complexities and ambiguities intrinsic to the teaching–learning process. Within the context of the knowledge economy and globalization those complexities and ambiguities are proliferating. How we as educators address the interface between these complexities is critical to how well we and those we serve fare in the educational and practice environment. With the emergent corporate university culture it would seem that the major goal is to become a ‘knowledge factory’ (...) or a site of knowledge creation. Increasingly its scientific and technological agenda is to focus on generating knowledge that would further the means and ends of economic growth and public policy. Traditionally, however, education has meant much more than this. Indeed, the original purpose of university education was designed to foster a desire for right conduct and good things which ultimately cannot be neatly packaged and delivered. Within this view, university educators would thus be expected to cultivate a climate of self‐reflection in which learning can be fulfilling in itself. This paper explores the notion of globalization and its hegemonic influence on the university agenda and addresses how corporatism, a key dimension of globalization, is in effect usurping the very essence of the teaching–learning process. (shrink)

This paper outlines and reviews three forms and associated discourses of the 'knowledge economy': the 'learning economy', based on the work of Bengt-Åke Lundvall; the 'creative economy' based on the work of Charles Landry, John Howkins and Richard Florida; and the 'open knowledge economy' based on the work of Yochai Benkler and others. Arguably, these three forms and discourses represent three recent related but different conceptions of the knowledge economy, each with clear (...) significance and implications for education and education policy. The last provides a model of radically non-propertarian form that incorporates both 'open education' and 'open science' economies. (shrink)

Significant developments in the global economy and information technology have been accompanied by a transformation in the nature and process of knowledge production and dissemination. Concepts such as the knowledge economy or creative economy have been formulated to accommodate the new and complex developments in knowledge, creativity, economy, and technology. While much of the current literature on the knowledge and creative economy substantially reflects the economic impact of knowledge and creativity, (...) previous studies have rarely touched upon the role of translation in this development. By discussing the role of translation as a generative process in the creative economy and its implications for crossing boundaries in education, this paper argues that translation plays a significant role in the creation of a hybrid milieu. This dynamic cultural hybridity is stimulated by the circulation of knowledge and information via translation, but is also, per se, a driver inviting greater engagement of ideas and knowledge given that translated works always require retrospective interpretations along with changing social and cultural mores. (shrink)

In his “Common knowledge” (2016) and _The Transmission of Knowledge_ (2021), John Greco proposes a novel account of hinge propositions. Central to it is the idea that they are items of common knowledge – that is, of knowledge that is already present in the system, freely available to anyone, without having to figure it out by oneself or having to be taught it by others. As such, they are not subject to any quality control at all. Furthermore, (...) they figure in a subject’s cognitive economy as items of procedural, mostly tacit knowledge, which is operative in the execution of actions and various cognitive tasks. After introducing the basics of Greco’s account, I consider it from a systematic and historical perspective and argue that, while instructive, it is wanting in several respects. Whereas some, among the myriad hinges Wittgenstein considers in _On Certainty_ (1969), may be known, there is no need to make them the content of a different kind of knowledge. Furthermore, we cannot have (evidential) justification and, _a fortiori_, knowledge of at least some other propositions that Wittgenstein considered as hinges. In passing, I also show that Greco’s account aligns much more with G. E. Moore’s ideas about the epistemic status of his truisms in “A defence of common sense” (1925) and the premises of his celebrated “Proof of an external world” (1939), than with Wittgenstein’s account of hinges and their epistemic significance in _On Certainty_. (shrink)

Universities are dualistic institutions and have always been an ideological battlefield. On the one hand, universities are places of knowledge creation and dissemination, which are crucial for a democratic society. On the other hand, the creation of new knowledge is important not only for liberatory practices. Universities can be captured to crack down on dissent or to subsume their knowledge production into convenient ideologies.Due to their abilities for “innovation,” universities, with the rise of knowledge economies and (...) neoliberal modernization, have recently been captured by global capitalist production and competition. Neoliberalization changes universities’ governing and institutional structures, which are now infiltrated by various authoritarian practices. However, authoritarianism is not only emerging because of neoliberal accumulation regimes; neoliberal rationalities might reinforce already existing authoritarianisms.After discussing academic authoritarian neoliberalism in liberal democracies, I proceed with the history of Russian universities, which have long been marked by centralized and hierarchical governance in an authoritarian state. However, contrary to previous research that equates contemporary academic authoritarianism with a return to “Soviet command policies,” I argue that this is a misleading comparison since universities are now captured to serve another type of economy: the nationalistic competition of neoliberal capitalism. (shrink)

This chapter delves into the concept of the digital technologies-driven knowledge economy and its transformative impact on industries, economies, and societies. It explores how the rapid advancement of digital technologies and the availability of vast amounts of data have reshaped the way businesses operate, create value, and interact with customers. This chapter examines the key drivers of the digital economy and knowledge economy, such as the internet, mobile devices, cloud computing, and data analytics and digital (...) platforms. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that arise from this digital transformation, including increased efficiency, innovation, and global connectivity, as well as concerns. It discusses the importance of education, research institutions, and lifelong learning in fostering a thriving knowledge economy. It discusses the need for investments in digital infrastructure, fostering digital skills and literacy, promoting research and development, and creating supportive regulatory frameworks. (shrink)

ArgumentThis article investigates how anthropological knowledge about regions with economic difficulties became part of regional development in France during the pivotal decade of the 1970s. It argues that ethnological fieldwork in French peripheries in the 1960s provided knowledge about regional culture and practices for its maintenance that became the core of a new development tool, the Ecomusée. It was via this tool that French anthropologists sought to intervene in regional development. By analyzing one of the first French ecomuseums, (...) we gain an understanding of how anthropological practices and knowledge nurtured the shift to cultural development politics associated with the “enrichment economy.” Fieldwork in the 1960s, aimed at a professionalized Ethnologie de France, problematized interaction with the local population and produced knowledge about regional culture that identified a region with its economic past. The practices of documentation and participation established during these fieldwork projects shaped the enrichment economy. (shrink)

Over the last several decades, knowledge has emerged as the undisputed key to unlocking worldly potential. Clarifying why the author chooses the designator “knowledge economy,” this chapter introduces some distinct and antagonistic conceptions of the knowledge economy and the political orientations and prescriptions that precede and follow from them. It sketches the history of the knowledge economy and its internal relation to post-Fordism before providing several examples of why and how the quest for (...) more knowledge is oppressive, linking the drive particularly with colonialism and ableism. After, it examines the alleged liberatory potential of the knowledge economy by visiting the Italian marxist tradition, the latter of which happened to emerge at the same time as the former. Finally, the introduction gives a brief gloss at the chapters to come. (shrink)

Global science expansion and the ‘skills premium’ in labor markets have been extensively discussed in the literature on the global knowledge economy, yet the focus on, broadly-speaking, knowledge-related personnel as a key factor is surprisingly absent. This article draws on UIS and OECD data on research and development personnel for the period 1980 to 2015 for up to N = 82 countries to gauge cross-national trends and to test a wide range of educational, economic, political and institutional (...) determinants of general expansion as well as expansion by specific sectors and country groups. Findings show that, worldwide, the number of personnel involved in the creation of novel and original knowledge has risen dramatically in the past three decades, across sectors, with only a few countries reporting decrease. Educational and economic predictors show strong effects. Expansion is also strongest in those countries embedded in global institutional networks, yet regardless of a democratic polity. I discuss the emergence of ‘knowledge work’ as a mass-scale and worldwide phenomenon and map out consequences for the analysis of such a profound transformation, which involves both an educated workforce and the strong role of the state. (shrink)

Value is increasingly found in human subjects and in particular within their minds. This places the individual at the centre of economic life and therefore the inner life of individual merits more attention. A key element of humanity is memory and it drives such phenomena as trust and goodwill, essential in modern business. Bergson’s philosophy examines the interaction of mind and matter and in this reflects the dualism of the knowledge economy. His work on memoryoffers important insights for (...) those seeking to account for and manage intangible assets. Our paper examines, through the prism of Bergsonian philosophy, the implications for accounting practice of the increased importance of intangible assets in modern corporations. (shrink)

Present time the term ‘knowledge economy‘ is widely used to determine the type of economy in which the decisive role is played by knowledge and the generation of new knowledge becomes a source of socio-economic development. The emergence of the knowledge economy was predetermined by the rapid development of information and communication technologies. Therefore, different approaches to the of knowledge economy measurement define the level of the information-communication technologies development as one (...) of the most important indicators. The state programs of infotelecommunication development support are an important tool to affect global rating of the country according to the level of development of the knowledge economy. (shrink)

The term ‘knowledge economy’, like the term ‘globalisation’, has become a catchword in political and educational debate over the last decade or so, especially in debates upon educational policy where the role of education in preparing young people to take their part in the Knowledge Economy is often seen as paramount over other traditional schooling activities. It is said in such debates that the production of knowledge, information and skills, will become more valuable than traditional (...) primary and secondary production. A lot is said about the knowledge required in the Knowledge Economy, and about how institutions, businesses, activities and human beings are to be ordered or structured in accordance with views of knowledge and new Management theories. But little is said of the young people expected to take their part in the knowledge economy. Do they have a choice? Is lying on a surfboard excluded from their life options? How will they be developed, trained or educated to take their part? Will they be committed to developing their selves in accordance with the model of the IT Knowledge Entrepreneur presented as a model for education by policy makers in the Knowledge Economy? This article will argue against this latter notion of the development of the self, arguing that because knowledge is prioritised over ethics, there is both an inadequate notion of the self and the educational development of the self and, because of its implicit view only of ethics, an inadequate ethical and moral view of education [246 words]. (shrink)

It is commonplace to say that the modern economy is knowledge based but a moment’s reflection points to the vacuity of this notion. For all economies are knowledge based and could not be otherwise. The question is rather how is one kind of knowledge based economy to be distinguished from another? This essay proposes that the answer may lie in three directions: (1) in terms of the variety of knowledge that is engaged; (2) in (...) terms of the processes by which the production of knowledge is organised, and its corollary the resources devoted to knowledge production and dissemination; and, (3) in terms of the purposes to which knowledge is put. In respect of each of these dimensions, the rise of the modern university as a custodian of knowledge in Western economy and society has been of central importance; but universities are not alone in this role, a wide range of other agencies, private firms, public research laboratories for instance play an important role in defining a knowledge economy and have done so increasingly since the turn of the nineteenth century—a first indication of the systemic dimensions of a modern knowledge economy. (shrink)

This paper seeks to inquire into the constructionist knowledge practices by further exploring the interchange outlined by philosopher Gaston Bachelard between the naive realist's conjuration of reality as a precious good in her possession and the miser's complex of savings the pennies. In fact, this elective affinity holds true not just for naive realism, but also for its very critiques, most of which remaining passionately attached to a little something that is prior to any socio-historical process. This realistic little (...) something is better understood as a double negation, namely as a not-nothing, in that it precisely survives the critique of a pre-existing reality out there as is the case for the discourse of social construction. I will suggest here that this not-nothing proceeds from knowledge practices that enact "epistemic covetousness" as their critical gesture. (shrink)

Outlining an integrative theory of knowledge, Francisco Javier Carrillo explores how to understand the underlying behavioural basis of the knowledge economy and society. Chapters highlight the notion that unless a knowledge-based value creation and distribution paradigm is globally adopted, the possibilities for integration between a sustainable biosphere and a viable economy are small. This Modern Guide provides an overview of where we are regarding the knowledge economy and society, how its current form took (...) shape, and how our understanding has evolved from the grounds of the philosophy of knowledge, to include the current branches of the sciences of knowledge. Carrillo further examines the challenges of the Anthropocene and how modern knowledge systems might need to change radically to meet them. The Modern Guide then moves to focus on the integration of epistemic, theoretical, technical, and political developments in several fields of knowledge-related aspects of economy and society to offer a more integrated view. Multidisciplinary and thorough, this will be an interesting read for scholars of knowledge, society and the environment, as well as students looking at ways to re-evaluate knowledge more broadly. Policymakers and governmental analysts will also benefit from the discussing of the unviability of our current economic culture and the potential options for the future. (shrink)

The advent of the knowledge economy changes the ways in which firms organize their activities and how they strategize in the market place. This non-technical volume lays the foundations for an analysis of these phenomena. In particular, it shows how 'knowledge-based approaches' in management studies may be complemented by key ideas from the economics of organization. The discussion is both theoretical and empirical.

Introduction: The politics of religious experience -- The ethics of knowledge in the human sciences -- The ethical veil of the knowledge economy -- Binary knowledge and the protected category -- Economic formations of psychology and religion -- Religion, politics, and psychoanalysis -- Maslow's economy of religious experience -- Cognitive capital and the codification of religion -- Conclusion: Critique and the ethics of not-knowing.

Graphic pattern (e.g. geometric design) and number-based code (e.g. digital sequencing) can store and transmit complex information more efficiently than referential modes of representation. The analysis of the two genres and their relation to one another has not advanced significantly beyond a general classification based on motion-centred geometries of symmetry. This article examines an intriguing example of patchwork coverlets from the maritime societies of Oceania, where information referencing a complex genealogical system is lodged in geometric designs. By drawing attention to (...) the interplay of graphic pattern and number-based code and its role in the knowledge economies of maritime societies, the article offers new insight into possible ways of designing a digital informational surface that captures the behaviour of an operational system, allowing both for differentiation and integration. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

Abstract:For decades, education has been inundated with neoliberal policies described as enabling its structures to adjust to a global knowledge economy. Located at the intersection of such "reform" language and classical liberal economic theory is a troubling paradox–the idea that knowledge should be centrally concentrated in order to "liberalize" education along free market lines. This essay considers implications of centralized knowledge for music education in light of this contradiction and the rhetoric that obscures it. To raise (...) awareness of this paradox, I briefly summarize some of the literature on neoliberalism and state intervention before examining the ideas of an individual skeptical of central knowledge planning despite his pivotal role in the birth of modern educational "reform": Peter Drucker. The ideological collapsing of Drucker's nuanced views by neoliberal interests stands in stark contrast with what could be a less instrumental argument for the development of problem-solving skills for lifelong benefit. Finally, I ask whether we reinforce this contradiction if we champion music's curricular legitimacy and relevance, yet fail to teach students to think musically for themselves as evidenced by prescriptive instructional methods or participation in standardizing musical knowledge through failure to resist the totalizing ideology of the audit culture. (shrink)

Both a significant body of literature and the case study presented here show that digital knowledge repositories struggle to attract the needed level of data and knowledge contribution that they need to be successful. This happens also to high profile and prestigious initiatives. The paper argues that the reluctance of researchers to contribute can only be understood in light of the highly competitive context in which research careers need to be built nowadays and how this affects researchers’ quality (...) of life. Competition and managerialism limit the discretion of researchers in sharing their results and in donating their working time. A growing corpus of research shows that academic researchers are increasingly overworked and highly stressed. This corroborates the point that the room for undertaking additional tasks with future and uncertain benefits is very limited. The paper thus recommends that promoters of digital knowledge repositories focus on the needs of the researchers who are expected to contribute their knowledge. In order to treat them fairly and to ensure the success of the repositories, knowledge sharing needs to be rewarded so as to improve the working conditions of contributors. In order to help implementing this researcher-centred approach, the paper proposes the idea of expediential trust: rewards for contributing should be such that rational, self-interested researchers would freely decide to contribute their knowledge and effort trusting that this would make them better off. (shrink)

The left sees struggles over the knowledge economy as battles for what Marx called the “general intellect.” After clarifying that capital has always expropriated knowledge, the chapter shows the role of the general intellect in the transformation from Fordism to post-Fordism, as socialist and anti-colonial struggles claimed a stake in the general intellect and capital worked back to repress and enclose the movements. It also, however, absorbed the demands of the movements in perverted form. It then shows (...) how post-Fordism depends on the general intellect and how left theorists of the general intellect end up reinforcing the knowledge economy’s demand for more and more knowledge, despite the incalculability of knowledge. (shrink)

This article examines the ways in which ideologies of aspiration, inclusion, and women’s empowerment associated with India’s globalizing knowledge economy are re-framed by young women workers in a small-town business-process outsourcing center two hours outside of Bangalore. Drawing on forty in-depth interviews, I show that, in contrast to their managers’ expectations of individualized work aspirations, women workers draw on both individualistic and domestically embedded articulations of the future in a formulation I call “flexible aspirations.” In articulating flexible aspirations, (...) they draw both on the gendered language of neoliberal self-improvement for the global economy and on the nationalist ideal of rural middle-class feminine domesticity. While insisting that the future is uncertain, young women use flexible aspirations as a symbolic resource to distinguish themselves from both old-fashioned village housewives and promiscuous urban call center girls. I briefly compare these flexible aspirations to young men workers’ strategic articulations of aspiration, which, rather than relinquishing hopes to an unpredictable future, adjust plans to fit known social limitations. This article, drawing on feminist interpretations of Bourdieu, extends the literature on the Indian middle classes by analyzing young women’s aspirations in non-elite social locations. It builds on this feminist scholarship by highlighting ways in which young women use articulations of flexible aspiration as a mode of gendered class distinction. (shrink)

The last chapter of this book delves into the recent developments of the university. Higher education is increasingly digitalized, the pandemic reinforced the use of technology in teaching and learning. Nevertheless, post-pandemic, traditional forms and teaching and learning have resumed as well. The change, it can be thought, is less dramatic than some would suggest. This chapter is interested in the turn from digital to postdigital in higher education scholarship: how are we to understand the prefix ‘post’? How are we (...) to understand the movement from digital to postdigital? While the pandemic was a necessity for universities more than it was an opportunity, it is the climate breakdown and attempts to tackle it, that represent an opportunity for academia. Properly understood, the agenda responding to the climate breakdown—the Green New Deal—is simultaneously an agenda for redeveloping public institutions. Part and parcel of its promise should be a redeveloped public university. Only then can there be a mutually favourable and fair rapprochement between the public university and the knowledge economy. (shrink)

To what extent organized employers and trade unions support social policies is contested. This article examines the case of work-family policies, which have surged to become a central part of the welfare state. In that expansion, the joint role of employers and unions has largely been disregarded in the comparative political economy literature. The article posits that the shift from Fordist to knowledge economies is the impetus for the social partners’ support for WFPs. If women make up an (...) increasing share of high-skilled employees, employers start favoring WFPs to increase their labor supply. Similarly, unions favor WFPs if women constitute a significant part of their membership base. Yet the extent to which changes in preferences translate into policy depends on the presence of corporatist institutions. These claims are supported with statistical analyses of WFPs in eighteen advanced democracies across five decades and an in-depth case study of Norway. The article thus demonstrates that the trajectory of the new welfare state is decisively affected by the preferences and power of unions and employers. (shrink)

What is the appropriate criterion to use for distributive justice? Is it efficiency, need, contribution, entitlement, equality, effort, or ability? Globalization and Economic Ethics maintains that far from being rival principles of distributive justice, efficiency and need satisfaction are, in fact, complementary norms in our emerging knowledge economy. After all, human capital plays the central role in effecting and sustaining long-term efficiency in the Digital Age. This book explores the vital link between human capital formation and allocative efficiency (...) using the properties of the market and the knowledge economy as analytical tools. (shrink)

In this article we offer analysis of the intersection between what is theorized as the knowledge economy, US schools, and identity politics through our examination of a sample of print media advertisements. The thematic thread we use to tie these pieces together is the concept of smartness, which we frame as a metanarrative of truth reflected in schooling and society. In sum, 156 advertisements are examined and discourses of smartness, race/ethnicity, and gender analyzed. We discuss the ways power (...) has shifted within the knowledge economy to privilege smart identities as representations of human capital and those representations? connections to schooling. (shrink)

This paper explores the function of cities in the knowledge economy. The knowledge economy asks for “creative cities,” i.e. competitive urban areas that combine concentration, diversity, instability and a positive reputation. For a review of the concept of creative cities from a historical and theoretical perspective, we draw the conclusion that knowledge, creativity and innovation cannot be planned from scratch by local governments. However, creative cities par excellence such as Austin, the Øresund and Barcelona demonstrate (...) that local policymakers in fact can play a part in preparing cities for the requirements of the knowledge economy. We conclude that local governments can increase the chance that urban creativity emerges by providing the appropriate underlying framework conditions. (shrink)

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship has attracted researchers from a variety of disciplines and a diverse number of analytical approaches. Currently, there is a considerable amount of confusion and a variety of conflicting theories which are being used interchangeably and ambiguously. In this important new book, the authors argue that there are analytically distinct forms of entrepreneurship, each of them having an individual logic of their own. They highlight the role of individual economic agents with endowments of new knowledge or (...) new combinations of old knowledge as entrepreneurs, and thus identify them as dynamic factors in the knowledge economy. Overall, this book not only provides a contemporary overview of current research in the field, but also summarizes the policy conclusions that can be drawn from current research. (shrink)

(2011). Higher Education and International Student Mobility in the Global Knowledge Economy. By K. Guruz. British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 59, Research capacity building, pp. 355-357.

More and more people in China are now realizing that the country has already become a globalizing economy, but some contend that China's economy is still far from being based on knowledge. However, as globalization necessarily brings with it a knowledge economy, China is of necessity involved in the new economy, and has in consequence encountered many new ethical issues. In the first part of the paper some of these issues are discussed – issues (...) of intellectual property protection, issues related to the exploitation of Chinese know‐how and knowledge products by foreign companies, and issues of cultural colonization. These issues are complicated, widespread and novel, and there is a need to develop ethical guidelines to deal with these issues. Although the perspective of the analysis is Chinese, these same problems are faced by countries the world over. (shrink)

‘Academic rentiership’ is an economistic way of thinking about the familiar tendency for academic knowledge to consolidate into forms of expertise that exercise authority over the entire society. The feature that ‘rentiership’ high-lights is control over what can be accepted as a plausible knowledge claim, which I call ‘modal power’. This amounts to how the flow of information is channelled in society, with academic training and peer-reviewed research being the main institutional drivers. This paper begins by contextualizing rentiership (...) in the deeper issues surrounding ‘cognitive economy ’that lie at the heart of the Western philosophical tradition. The psychological phenomenon of the ‘Gestaltshift’ is used to illustrate various ways in which the flow of information can be channelled to enable or disable certain possible ways of regarding the world. Against this background, such familiar concepts from academic practice as ‘quality control’ and ‘plagiarism’ acquire a new look. Quality control aims to maintain rentiership, whereas plagiarism aims to undermine it. The second half of the paper is largely concerned with the historical swings back and forth between rentiership and anti-rentiership in academia. Rentiership’s decline is associated with corruption of its quality control processes, which reveals academia’s reliance on equally corrupt power elites in society. In addition, the introduction of new communication media over which academia cannot exert proprietary control also serves to open up the sphere of plausible knowledge claims. The ongoing Internet revolution is likely to permanently alter the terms on which academic rentiership will be possible in the future. (shrink)

The relationship between knowledge and society, and more specifically between knowledge and economy, has received growing attention from scholars during the last century. Among other consequences, this resulted in the birth of new disciplines, such as the sociology of knowledge and social history of knowledge1, as well as knowledge management. However, another effect of the growing awareness concerning the important role of knowledge in society and economy has been the development of a wide (...) debate about what has been variously called post-industrial society2, information society and information economy3, knowledge society and knowledge economy4. (shrink)