Education, Science and Knowledge Capitalism—Creativity and the Promise of Openness

We live in the age of global science – but not, primarily, in the sense of ‘universal knowledge’ that has characterized the liberal metanarrative of ‘free’ science and the ‘free society’ since its early development in the Enlightenment. Today, an economic logic links science to national economic policy, while globalized multinational science dominates an environment where quality assurance replaces truth as the new regulative ideal. This book examines the nature of educational and science-based capitalism in its cybernetic, knowledge, algorithmic and bioinformational forms before turning to the emergence of the global science system and the promise of openness in the growth of international research collaboration, the development of the global knowledge commons and the rise of the open science economy. Education, Science and Knowledge Capitalism explores the nature of cognitive capitalism, the emerging mode of social production for public education and science and its promise for the democratization of knowledge.

Michael A. Peters is Professor of Education at Waikato University (New Zealand) and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). He is Executive Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory, Policy Futures in Education, E-Learning & Digital Media and Knowledge Cultures, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society (New Zealand). His most recent books include Obama and the End of the American Dream (2012) and Education, Philosophy and Politics: Selected Works (2012).