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.