edm 6022 education and development

EDM 6022Education and Development

Globalization & Education: The Global-Informational Capitalism & Its Educational

Consequences

Wing-kwong TsangHo Tim Bldg. Room 416; Ext. 6922;

[email protected]; www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/~wktsang

The Advent of Informational-Global Economy and the End of Capitalism? Statement of the Problem

The proponents: Bill Gate’s thesis of Friction-Free Capitalism Peter Drucker’s thesis of Post-Capitalist Societ

y Industrial revolution: Knowledge applied tools, p

rocess, and products Productivity revolution: Knowledge applied to w

ork Management revolution: Knowledge applied to k

nowledge

The Advent of Informational-Global Economy and the End of Capitalism? Statement of the Problem

The opponents: Another stage, if not the highest stage, of capit

alism Historical outline of the development of capitali

sm Mercantile capitalism: 1500-1800 Industrial capitalism: 1800-1940 Organized capitalism: 1950-1970

Fordism Welfare-state corporatism

Informational-global capitalism

Explication of Basic Conceptual Tools

Informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996)

Information is the raw material and technologies are used to act on information.

Information and information technology rise to the central and primary position in enhancing productivity and generating wealth

The pervasiveness of effects of IT The permeation of the network logics


“The Atom is the past. The symbol of science for the next century is the dynamical Net … Whereas the Atom represents clean simplicity, the Net channels the messy power of complexity. …The only organization capable of nonprejudiced growth, or unguided learning is a network. All other typologies limited what can happen. A network swarm is all edges and therefore open ended any way you come at it. Indeed, the network is the least structured organization that can be said to have any structure at all. …In fact a plurality of truly divergent components can only remain coherent in a network. No other arrangement – chain, pyramid, tree, circle, hub – can contain ture diversity work as a whole.” (Kelly, 1995, p.25-27 quoted in Castells, 19976, note71, p. 61-62)


Informational and the information Technology Paradigm (Castells, 1996)

The flexibility of processes, organizations and institutions

The converging and integrative capacity of IT system


Capitalism: As a mode of production characterized by the following features

Domination of capital over other means of production, including labor

Labor power is bought and sold by money wages Production for sale rather than for own use; production f

or exchange value rather use value Commoditfication as the primary dynamics of the mode

of production: MCPC’M’, i.e. Money capital Commodity (i.e. labor and the means of production) Production Commodity (products) Money

Competition among capitalist

From Fordist-Keynesian Capitalism to Informational Global Capitalism The crisis of Fordistic production process (Ton

y Smith) Crisis in factor inputs

High raw material costs (especially oil High inventory costs Inflexibility of set-ups of machinery and assembly line


y Smith) Crisis in circulation time and cost

Lengthy delivery times between suppliers and assemblers

Extended interruptions in production due to the need to retool

The length of time required to make decisions with an extensive corporate bureaucracy

The time required to correct quality problems The time demanded to work off previous inventories The length of time required to institute innovation, due

to separation of design engineers and production personnel


y Smith) Crisis in capital / labor relation

Mounting unproductive expenses connected with supervison of the workforce

Worker resistance at the point of production in overt and indirect form (strike and absenteerism, respectively)

Wage increases not match by productivity advances due to collective bargaining through unionism

Quality control stemming from the separation of quality control to a separate department


y Smith) Crisis in capital / consumer relation

Inability to respond promptly to shifts in consumer demands

The mass production of standardized products prevented from producing customized or customer-designed products

From Fordist-Keynesian Capitalism to Informational Global Capitalism

Italian and Japanese initiations to the crisis of Fordism

The third Italy model Toyotism

The Just-In-Time (JIT) model Total Quality Control (TQC) model: Assumption of five

zeros (zero defect in the parts, zero mischief in the machines, zero inventory, zero delay, and zero paperwork)

Involvement of workers and emphasis on multi-functional specialization and teamwork: Quality circles

The constitution of the Informational-global economy

• Constitution of global division of labor• Producers of high value, based on

informational labor• Producers of high volume, based on low-cost

labor• Producers of raw materials, based on natural

endowment• Redundant producer


Constitution of global production network: Microelectronic and computer as examples R&D, innovation, and prototype fabrication in “

Technopolis” Skilled fabrication in branch plants in newly ind

ustrializing areas in core countries Semi-skilled, large-scale assembly and testing

work in offshore newly industrialized countries Customization of device and aftersales mainten

ance and support in regional centers throughout the globe


Constitution of global finance network: Capital and information flows around the globe via hubs and nodes, i.e. international financial centers

Constitution of global distribution of consumer goods and services, via global metropolis


The constitution of the Informational-global capitalism:

“It is informational because the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in this economy (be it firms, regions, or nations) fundamentally depend upon their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information. It is global because the core activities of production, consumption, and circulation, as well as their components (capital, labor, raw materials, management, information, technology, markets) are organized on a global scale either directly or through network of linkages between economic agents.” (Castells, 1996, p. 66) “It is an economy is an economic system “based on the capacity of IT to be able to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale.” (Castells, 1996, p.92)

The constitution of the network enterprise

• Internal organization form of network enterprise: Horizontal corporation

• Flexible specification and multi-functional workers• Flat and networked hierarchy• Team management• Autonomous but accountable teamwork and/or quality circle• Measuring performance by customer satisfaction• Reward based on team performance• Maximization of contact with suppliers and customers, and

swift responses to feedbacks by retooling or even reengineering

• Information, training and retaining of workers


External organization of network enterprise Multidirectional networking with small and

medium business Licensing-subcontracting Corporate strategic alliance


Manuel Castells characterizes network enterprise as “specific form of enterprise whose system of means is constituted by the intersection of segments of autonomous system of goals. Thus, the components of the network are both autonomous and dependent vis-a-vis the network. …The performance of given network will then depend on two fundamental attributes to the network: its connectedness, that is its structural ability to facilitate noise-free communication between its components; its consistency, that is the extent to which there is sharing of interests between the network’s goals and the goals of its components.” (1996, p.171)

The transformation of work and employment: Debate on Jobless society

• Automation and computerization will cause rise of unemployment and even a “jobless future (Aronwitz & DiFazio, 1994)

• Carnoy (2000) and Castells (1996) argue that the jobless thesis is too simplified and misleading. Castells (1996, p. 228-9) characterize the transformation of employment and occupational structure as follows


• Carnoy (2000) and Castells (1996) argue that the jobless thesis is too simplified and misleading. Castells (1996, p. 228-9) characterize the transformation of employment and occupational structure as follows

• The phasing out of agricultural employment• The steady decline of traditional manufacturing employment• The rise of both producer services and social services, with the

emphasis on business service in the first category, and health services in the second group

• The increasing diversification of service activities as sources of jobs

• The rapid rise of managerial, professional, and technical jobs


• Carnoy (2000) and Castells (1996) argue that the jobless thesis is too simplified and misleading. Castells (1996, p. 228-9) characterize the transformation of employment and occupational structure as follows (continued)

• The formation of a “white-collar” proletariat, made up of clerical and sales workers

• The relative stability of a substantial share of employment in retail trade

• The simultaneous increase of the upper and lower levels of the occupational structure

• The relative upgrading of the occupational structure over time, with an increasing share of those occupations that require higher skills and advanced education proportionally higher than the increase of the lower-level categories

Harvey’s Fragmented labor market in Flexible Accumulation of Capitalism (1996, p.171)

Transformation of work: The rise of Netwrokers and Flextimers

• The New division of labor in network enterprise has transformed “work” in the following ways (Castells, 1996, 243-45)

• Value-making: It refers to the actual task performed in a given work process

• The commanders• The researchers• The designers• The integrators• The operators• The operated



• Relation-making: It refers to the relationship between a given organization and its environment, including other organizations

• The networkers• The networked• The switched-off



• Decision-making: It refers to the relationship between managers and employees in a given organization

• The deciders• The participant• The executants


Flexibility of work changes important elements of work in the following four ways

The notion of time: Flexible work means less employed time than a thirty-five- or forty-hour per week full-year job

The notion of permanency: Flexible work is based explicitly on a fixed-term contract with no commitment for future employment

The notion of location: Although the vast majority of workers still work at business sites, increasing numbers of independent contractors work not on-site but in their homes

The notion of social contract between employer and employee: the traditional contract based on reciprocal rights, protections, and obligation is rapidly relinquishing.

The consequence of the rise of informational-global capitalism

• Polarization of classes• Polarization between globally mobile capitalists and

locally pit-downed proletariat• Polarization between mobile “core labor force” of in

formation-global economy made up of information-based managers and “symbolic analysts” and “disposable labor force” that can be automated and/or hired/fired/offshored

The consequence of the rise of informational-global capitalism

• Thesis of deskilling: • For core labor force, the deskilling thesis does not

applied, but workers in the core labor force must constantly reskill or “reprogram” oneself to survive the competitions in global-informational capitalism

• For the disposable labor force, the deskilling thesis does applied. However, they do not only experiencing deskilling but also skill and job obsolescence

• Intensified structural coercion and exploitation thesis

• Intensified competitions among capitalists

Educational Consequences of the Constitution of Informational-Global Capitalism

• Education in Fordist Capitalism: Bowles and Gintis’ Schooling in Capitalist America (1976)

• Marxian Critique of the Human Capital Theory• The reproductive functions of capitalist schooling s

ystem• Producing the technical and cognitive skill of labor• Producing the personalities necessary for the modes

of control in capitalist labor process• Legitimizing the economic inequality of capitalism an

d inculcating the value of possessive individualism • Constituting and reinforcing the fragmented and strat

ified consciousness of the subordinate economic classes


• Education in Fordist Capitalism: • The Correspondence principle in capitalist schoolin

g The structure correspondence between the social rel

ations of the schooling system and those of capitalist workplace

“The structure of the social relations on education…inures the students to the discipline of the workplace”

It “develops the types of personal demeanor, modes of self-presentation, self-image, and social-class identifications which are the crucial ingredients of job adequacy”.


• Education in Fordist Capitalism: • The Correspondence principle in capitalist schoolin

g The hierarchical relations between administrators an

d teachers, teachers and students, and among students replicate the hierarchical division of labor and vertical authority lines in the workplace.

The alienating features in schooling learning prepare students for the alienating features in the Fordist labor process

The “destructive competition among students through continual and ostensibly meritocratic ranking and evaluation” nurtures the fragmented and stratified consciousness in the workplace and legitimatize the economic inequality in capitalism.


• Education in Fordist Capitalism:• Differentiation of correspondence principles betwee

n the education stratification and the occupational hierarchy

Educational Hierarchy Occupational Hierarchy

Patient, compliant, obedient, docile

Dependable, Self-disciplined,

Self-sufficient

Independent, Creative, Aggressive

Rule Following

Rule Implementing

Rule Setting

Goal Setting


Education in Informational-Global Capitalism Distinction between neo- and post-Fordism (Brown a

nd Lauder, 1997) “Neo-Fordism can be characterized in terms of creatin

g greater flexibility market through a reduction in social overheads and power of trade unions, the privatization of public utilities and the welfare state.” (1997, p. 176)

“Post-Fordism can be defined in terms of the development of the state as a ‘strategic trader’ shaping the direction of the national economy through investment in key economic sectors and in the development of human capital. ...Post-Fordism is based on a shift to ‘high-value’ customized production and services using multi-skilled workers.” (1997, 176)


Education in Informational-Global Capitalism Education initiatives corresponding neo-Fordism

Education of vocationalism: Tighter and more direct corresponding between education outputs and workplace requirement

Commdification of education and education for performativity: Tighter and more direct corresponding between education outputs and market imperative


Education in Informational-Global CapitalismEducation initiative corresponding post-Fordism

Education of flexible specialization in labor process: Replacement of education of specialized knowledge and skill with education for generic skills and multiple intelligences.

Education for participatory labor process in network enterprise: Replacement of education for docile and disciplined bodies and minds with education for team work and collaborative learning

Education for innovation: Replacement of rote learning with creative learning


Education in Informational-Global CapitalismEducation initiative corresponding post-Fordism

Education for networking capacities in network enterprise: Replacement of education for textual literacy with education for communicative skills and computer literacy

Education for globalism: Replacement of education for localism (i.e. locl or national identity) and vernacular with education for globalism and global language


Degree of correspondence in correspondence principle: Burden of proof of the causality between school and workplace

edm 6022 education and development

Documents

end of capitalism

industrial capitalism

organized capitalism

mode of production

use production

global economy

capitalism historical

information technology