Pursuing the Knowledge Economy


Book Description

Nick O'Donovan tells the story of how the techno-optimism once associated with the rise of the knowledge economy came to be supplanted by widespread anxiety about technological progress, and how the political consensus that formed around a knowledge-driven growth agenda has unravelled.




The Knowledge Economy


Book Description

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.




The Knowledge Economy


Book Description

What is this knowledge-based economy? Is it really new or unique? What are its effects, and what does it mean to us? In order to help answer those questions, this anthology has been compiled as a means of providing answers for anyone in business or the public policy-making fields who would like to know what academics and economists are talking about when they refer to the knowledge-based economy. It is a collection of articles dealing with the most important developing themes in this area: *The shift in employment from "brawn to brains" *The effect that "knowledge elitism" may have on public policy concerning education and training, wealth disparity and social exclusion *Organizational changes brought about by the new breed of "knowledge workers" functioning in the new high-performance workplace *Computing, telecommunications, globalization, and the interconnected economy Using seminal articles from a variety of sources, this volume is intended to be a primer for introducing the reader to all aspects of the knowledge-based economy. Dale Neef is a political economist and a knowledge management specialist with extensive academic and commercial experience in both North America and Europe. He earned his Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Cambridge, was a Research Fellow at Harvard University, and currently works with Ernst & Young's Center for Business Innovation researching issues surrounding knowledge management and the knowledge-based economy. He divides his time between writing, lecturing, and consultancy. Part of the series Resources for the Knowledge-Based Economy Introduces the reader to all aspects of the knowledge-based economy Uses seminal articles from a variety of sources




Understanding the Dynamics of a Knowledge Economy


Book Description

. . . the topical way in which the subject is discussed makes this book useful also for policymakers or entrepreneurs interested in the subject. It is also appropriate for Masters or Ph.D. students who have a basic background in economics and management. . . [the book] provides interesting and deep analysis of the dynamic of knowledge economy and it is very well written. Francesca Masciarelli, Journal of Management and Governance The knowledge economy is a concept commonly deemed too ambiguous and elusive to hold any significance in current economic debate. This valuable book seeks to refute that myth. Presenting an important collection of views, from a number of leading scholars, this innovative volume visibly demonstrates that knowledge and information are a prime resource in driving the dynamics of an economy. It is argued that in order to understand the knowledge economy a diverse set of insights and approaches are required, which shed new and striking light on the roots of present-day economic dynamics. Using both theoretical and empirical material, this interdisciplinary collection offers a range of micro and macro perspectives. It draws on a variety of scientific backgrounds, and uses and develops a number of different methodologies, some of which may not be familiar in mainstream economics. The approaches adopted by historians, economists, systems theorists, management scholars and geographers which are explored in this book are central to encouraging a new and practical way forward in reading the dynamics of the knowledge economy. In offering these key insights, this important volume makes an invaluable contribution to the lively debate surrounding the knowledge economy. An essential read for economists, this book will also find widespread appeal amongst scholars of management, cultural studies and geography.




Handbook on the Knowledge Economy


Book Description

'The second volume of the Handbook on the Knowledge Economy is a worthy companion to the highly successful original volume published in 2005, extending its theoretical depth and developing its coverage. Together the two volumes provide the single best work and reference point for knowledge economy studies. The second volume with fifteen original essays by renowned scholars in the field, provides insightful and robust analyses of the development potential of the knowledge economy in all its aspects, forms and manifestations.' Michael A. Peters, University of Illinois, USThis thoroughly revised second edition of the Handbook on the Knowledge Economy expands the range of issues presented in the first edition and reflects important new progress in research about knowledge economies.Readers with interests in managing knowledge- and innovation-intensive businesses and those who are seeking new insights about how knowledge economies work will find this book an invaluable reference tool. Chapters deal with issues such as open innovation, wellbeing, and digital work that managers and policymakers are increasingly asked to respond to. Contributors to the Handbook are globally recognised experts in their fields providing valuable guidance. This comprehensive and stimulating Handbook will prove an important resource for practitioners and academics in diverse areas of interest, including: knowledge management, innovation management, knowledge policy, social epistemology, and development studies.




Educating for the Knowledge Economy?


Book Description

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?




The Gifts of Athena


Book Description

Looking into the origins of the 'knowledge economy', this text constructs a framework to analyze the concept of 'useful' knowledge. It provides insights into a matter of fundamental concern to a range of disciplines including economics, economic history, political economy and history of science.







The Learning Challenge of the Knowledge Economy


Book Description

This book introduces a new perspective on the knowledge economy and the learning challenge it presents for individuals, communities and societies.




Knowledge and the Economy


Book Description

The broad spectrum of topics surrounding what is termed the ‘knowledge economy’ has attracted increasing attention from the scientific community in recent years. The nature of knowledge-intensive industries, the spatiality of knowledge, the role of proximity and distance in generating functional knowledge, the transfer of knowledge via networks, and the complex interplay between knowledge, location and economic development are all live academic issues. This book, the fifth volume in Springer’s Knowledge and Space series, focuses on the last of these: the multiple relationships between knowledge, the economy, and space. It reflects the conceptual and methodological multidisciplinarity emerging from this scholarship, yet where there has up to now been a notable lack of communication between some of the contributing disciplines, resulting in lexical and other confusions, this volume brings concord and to foster interdisciplinarity. These complications have been especially evident in our understanding of the spatiality of knowledge, the part that spatial contexts play in knowledge creation and diffusion, and the relevance of face-to-face contacts, all of which are addressed in these pages. The material here is grouped into four sections—knowledge creation and economy, knowledge and economic development, knowledge and networks, and knowledge and clusters. It assembles new concepts and original empirical research from geography, economics, sociology, international business relations, and management. The book addresses a varied audience interested in the historical and spatial foundations of the knowledge economy and is intended to bridge some of the gaps between the differing approaches to research on knowledge, the economy, and space.