10 october, 201510 october, 201510 october, 2015 the knowledge economy: democratisation,...
TRANSCRIPT
The Knowledge
Economy: Democratisation,
Distributive Justice or Domination?
Professor Louise MorleyCentre for Higher Education and Equity
Research (CHEER)University of Sussex, UK
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer
• What concepts structure the discourse?
• Are the drivers economic and/ or social (inclusion/
citizenship/ distributive justice)?
• What form does Education take in a KE?
• Can a KE exist without democracy?
• Has knowledge: been colonised by the ‘cultural circuits’ of capitalism (Mills
and Ratcliffe, 2012)?
become overtly aligned with the values of neo-liberal and
austerity policy cultures?
• Are some forms of knowledge and knowing misrecognised/
unintelligible/ absent
(De Souza Santos, 2001; Walby, 2011)?
The Knowledge Economy: Some Provocations
Global Policy Architecture in Late Capitalism
Knowledge Economy =
•Economics of abundance
•Annihilation of distance
•De-territorialization of the
state
•Investment in human capital
•Meta-cognitive skills
•Future orientated(OECD, 1996a, b,c,; World Bank, 1998,
2002)
Higher Education
From
•Planned scarcity
To
•Demand-led and claimed form of
citizenship
•The citizen now constructed as:
an economic maximisergoverned by self-interests aspiring for nation-building and wealth
creation.
• It is now almost a civic duty to aspire to
HE (Biesta, 2006).
Global Knowledge Race
European Union
•..to become the most competitive and
dynamic knowledge-based economy in
the world, capable of sustainable
economic growth with more and better
jobs and greater social cohesion. (Lisbon Council, March 2000).
ASEAN Region
•Providing citizens with higher incomes
and more fulfilling work (Marginson et al, 2011)
Gulf States
•Oil rich nations transforming themselves
into knowledge economies (Donn & Al
Manthri,2013)
•Latin America
• From agriculture to industry to
knowledge (Piaggesi & Chea 2011). 21 April 2023
What Does Knowledge Do?
• Economic progress via creation/
utilisation of knowledge.
• National economic asset
• Basis of national competitive
advantage.
• Drives innovation
• Social and geographical mobility
• Insurance against pubic/ private
poverty.
• Democratisation/ citizenship.
• Social Cohesion/ Peace.
Operationalising the Knowledge Economy
• Technologisation/ The Network
Society/ Connectivity
• Rethinking of relationships
between education, learning and
work (Young, 2010)
• Perpetual Training/ Lifelong
Learning (Burton-Jones,1999)
• Growth of intellectual, human
and social capital
(competencies) (Peters, 2004)
• Knowledge diffusion/ openness
• Global convergence
• Widening Access/Participation/
Massification
Desiring Higher Education
• Aligning aspirations with needs of economy (Morley et al. 2010; Walkerdine, 2003).
• Globally: 1960 - 13m
2005 - 137.8m 2009 – 170m Largest HE sectors:
• China (37m)
• India (28m)
• US (20m)
• Brazil (9m)
• Indonesia (7.8m)
Growth from 5 -6% (2009) to 1-2% (2012)Economic crisis = Democratic crisis?
Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania
Measuring:• Sociological variables of gender, age,
socio-economic status (SES)
In Relation to:• Educational Outcomes: access,
retention and achievement.
In Relation to:• 4 Programmes of Study in each
university.• 2 Public and 2 private universities.
• Quantitative Data -100 Equity Scorecards
• Qualitative Data - 200 interviews with students and 200 with staff and policymakers.
• Intertextuality(Morley et al. 2010)
(www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt)
Equity Scorecard: Access to Level 200 on 4 Programmes at a Public University in Tanzania According to Age, Gender and Socio Economic Status
% of Students on the Programme
Programme Women
Low SES
Age 30 or over
Mature and Low SES
Women and low
SES
Women 30 or over
Poor Mature Women
B. Commerce 32.41 8.59 1.13 0.16 0.32 0.0 0.0
LLB. Law 56.18 13.48 0.0 0.0 5.06 0.0 0.0
B.Sc. Engineering
25.05 11.65 1.36 0.0 1.36 1.17 0.0
B. Science with Education
11.20 28.00 4.80 1.6 0.80 0.0 0.0
21 April 2023
Equity Scorecard: Access to Level 200 on 4 Programmes at a Public University in Ghana According to Age, Gender and Socio Economic Status (2009)
Programme
% of Students on the Programme
WomenLow SES
Age 30 or
over
Mature and Low SES
Women and low SES
Women 30
or over
Poor Mature Women
B.Commerce 29.92 1.66 5.82 0.00 1.11 0.28 0.00
B.Management
Studies47.06 2.94 6.30 0.00 1.68 3.36 0.00
B.Education (Primary)
36.36 8.08 65.66 8.08 2.02 21.21 2.02
B.Sc. Optometry
30.77 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Reverse Discrimination
17 men and 9 women out of 100 students in Ghana
Gender difference = preferential treatment for women.
Women’s failure = evidence of lack of academic abilities/ preparedness for HE.
Women’s achievement = attributed to women’s ‘favoured’ position in gendered academic markets.
Women constructed as:Corrupt/ fraudulent learners.Not entitled to higher education.Post-feminist strategic agents, not victims.Deploying corporeal style to manipulate
essentialised male desire.Trading sex for grades. (Morley, 2011)
Democratisation = Representational Space?
Norm- saturated policy narratives
add more under-represented groups into current higher education systems
as students and academic leaders
=
a form of distributive justice/ smart economics
organisational and epistemic transformation
enhanced human capital
• Gender/ Ethnicity/Social Class = demographic variables (nouns), not in continual production (verbs).
• Women’s increased access = feminisation crisis discourse.
• HE products and processes = neutral?
• Power and privilege = under-theorisation.
• Redistributive measures (Affirmative Action) = threat to excellence.
• Access not an end in itself, like voting (Young, 2010)
• Knowledge Economy= invested, situated and exclusionary. 21 April 2023
From Access/ Participation to Cognitive/ Epistemic Justice (Fricker, 2007)
Certain people/ social groups:
Wronged in their capacity as knowersSuffer Credibility Deficit/ Lack
Rational Authority
•Testimonial injustice
Deflated level of credibility to a speaker
’s world
•Hermeneutical Injustice
Gap in collective interpretative
resources.
Democratisation in Higher Education/ Knowledge Economy…
IS NOT
• Access to knowledge/
knowledge production systems
and organisations
monopolised/ dominated by the
elite.
• Decontextualised knowledge.
• Commodifying knowledge/
exchange value.
• Overlapping social with
epistemological hierarchies.
COULD INVOLVE
• Discovering new conceptual grammars to include social identities and cognitive/ epistemic inclusion.
• Contributing to wealth/ opportunity distribution as well as to wealth creation.
References• Biesta, G. (2006) What’s the Point of Lifelong Learning if Lifelong Learning Has No Point? On
the Democratic Deficit of Policies for Lifelong Learning, European Educational Research
Journal, 5(2/3), 169-180.
• Burton-Jones, A. (1999) Knowledge Capitalism: Business, Work and Learning in the New
Economy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• De Sousa Santos.B. (2001) Towards an epistemology of blindness, European Journal of Social
Theory, 4 (3), 251—279:
• Donn, G. and Al Manthri, Y. (2013) Education in the Broader Middle East borrowing a baroque
arsenal. Oxford, Symposium
• Fricker, M. (2007) Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
• Lisbon Council, (2000). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_en.htm
• Marginson, S. , Kaur, S. and Sawir, E. (eds.) (2011) Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific:
Strategic responses to globalization. Dordrecht (Springer).
• Mills, D. and R. Ratcliffe (2012). After Method: Anthropology, Education and the Knowledge
Economy. Qualitative Research 12(2): 147-164.
• Morley, L., Leach, F., Lussier, K., Lihamba, A., Mwaipopo, R., Forde, L. & Egbenya, G. (2010)
Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity
Scorecard. Research Report. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/wphegt/impact-outputs/report-summary
References •Morley, L. (2011). Sex, Grades and Power in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania. Cambridge Journal of
Education 41(1): 101-115.
•OECD (1996a) The knowledge-based economy (Paris, The Organization).
OECD (1996b) Measuring what people know: human capital accounting for the knowledge economy (Paris, The
Organization).
OECD (1996c) Employment and growth in the knowledge-based economy (Paris, The Organization).
Peters, M. (2004). Education and Ideologies of the Knowledge Economy: Europe and the Politics of Emulation.
Social Work & Society 2( 2): 160-172.
•Piaggesi, D. and Chea, M.J. (2011). The Knowledge Economy: A New Development Paradigm for Latin America
and the Caribbean. In D. Piaggesi, K. Sund, & W. Castelnovo (Eds.) Global Strategy and Practice of E-Governance:
Examples from Around the World (pp. 464-477). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
•Young, M. (2010) Alternative Educational Futures for a Knowledge Society. European Educational Research
Journal. 9(1):1-13.
•Walby, S. (2011). Is the Knowledge Society Gendered?’Gender, Work and Organization. 18(1): 1-29.
•Walkerdine, V. (2003). Reclassifying upward mobility: femininity and the neo-liberal subject." Gender and
Education 15(3): 237-248.
•World Bank, The (1998) World development report: knowledge for development Washington DC,: World Bank,
•World Bank. (2002). Constructing Knowledge Societies. Washington DC: World Bank.