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In recent years, the 'knowledge economy' has re-entered political discourse as a future-oriented, seductive and optimistic concept. It heralds knowledge and intellectual capability as unlimited and mobile resources of production that can be used for the prosperity of all. Knowledge economy has been linked with the promise of fairness, free from the traditional factors of production, with education as the only prerequisite. This interdisciplinary volume examines the career paths of university graduates, the role of higher education and the internal hierarchies shaping employment in the knowledge economy.
The promise of fairness and social inclusivity has not yet played out. Despite increasing numbers of degree holders, the advancements of AI and other technologies is now expected to bring a 'knowledge substitution' rather than a human-centred knowledge economy. This book raises questions about the kind of jobs being made available, their social and political implications and how the main sociological themes of gender, class, education, ethnicity, age and location play a role. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of work and employment, higher education, youth studies and knowledge management.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The knowledge economy an idea whose time has come? Or gone.- PART I: Re-making sense of the knowledge economy.- Chapter 2: The knowledge economy: promise, reality and future.- Chapter 3: A Systematic Literature Review of Research on the Knowledge Economy.- Chapter 4: Mass higher education and the knowledge economy.- PART II: The construction of (working) selves.- Chapter 5: The Articulation of Learning in the Knowledge Economy: Recontextualization in Transitions.- Chapter 6: Thinking about Higher Vocational Education (HIVE): what would constitute a critical vocational education.- Chapter 7: Complex Entanglements: Graduate Transitions in Africa's Knowledge Economy and Beyond.- Chapter 8: Knowledge work in High Value Manufacturing: Preparing Graduates in an Innovative Industry-Based Learning Factory.- PART III: Occupational structures and career expectations.- Chapter 9: Downsizing Knowledge Workers in Higher Education: Casualisation, De-professionalisation, and Stratification.- Chapter 10: Equal Pay for Disproportionate Work: Assessing Cultural Taxation in the Legal Profession.- Chapter 11: Accounts of occupational prestige in the discursive context of the knowledge economy.- Chapter 12: Graduates in India's Silicon Valley: Who Gains in the Knowledge Economy.- Chapter 13: Imagining the future of work at the bottom of the knowledge economy. Graduates in Romania's business service sector.- Conclusions.- Chapter 14: Higher Education, Knowledge and Work: Transformations and Unsolved Tensions.
