Abstract
The Knowledge Economy and Lifelong Learning: A Critical Reader, edited by D. W. Livingstone and D. Guile, engages readers with 15 original conversations examining intellectual capital and economic growth within the framework of the 21st-century adult learner. The Reader is intended for adult and continuing education practitioners, scholars, and researchers interested in using a unique lens to examine lifelong learning and the knowledge economy. Adult and higher education policymakers and learners interested in exploring correlations between economic transformation and lifelong learning that “empower citizens to meet the challenges of the knowledge-based society” (Kasworm, Rose, & Ross-Gordon, 2010, p. 8) are a substantial part of The Reader’s designated audience.
The Reader is organized into two sections. The first section, General Critiques, consists of seven chapters and focuses on general questions related to knowledge economy and education. The areas of focus are (a) knowledge society and economy, (b) knowledge in the workplace, (c) political economy within the higher education context, (d) human capital theory, (e) globalization and the knowledge economy and the myths, (f) knowledge within a social context, and (g) the knowledge economy within educational, workplace, and labor contexts. In a chapter of this section, Bob Jessop revisits Daniel Bell’s (1976) The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting to explore the theoretical shortcomings of Bell’s predictions that addressed the role of the university and the amount of value placed on knowledge in a postindustrial society.
D. W. Livingstone’s chapter, “Debunking the ‘Knowledge Economy,’” addresses the current state of the global economy in which the underemployed continue to pursue higher education as a strategy to improve their condition. Livingstone critically confronts this strategy that has been perpetuated by many scholars who have articulated education as a way to prosperity.
The second section, Specific Challenges, has eight chapters and highlights issues regarding the knowledge economy and lifelong learning. It offers alternative implications and solutions to help resolve the general critiques presented in Section 1. The chapter authors ask readers to reconsider how knowledge in the economy is approached in developed societies. Areas of focus are (a) an analysis of how knowledge is used and created in a social context, (b) knowledge as culture within a professional context, (c) linking the profession with the workplace, (d) production practices and recodification of current practices, (e) working and learning within the social service context, (f) working and learning within the creative and cultural workforce context, (g) working and learning within a democratic framework, and (h) knowledge as a central force in educational policy. The premise of this section is that “wealth is tied to those with knowledge and the educational systems that produce” (p. 402) its respective workers.
Catherine Casey’s chapter considers the role of the worker. Casey states, “Many production organizations require workers’ integration not through democratic citizenship, but through conformity to elite established rules and systems” (p. 317); this conformity comes at a price to the worker who is viewed purely as a human resource that is to be managed and trained. The chapter titled “Education, Globalization and the ‘Voice of Knowledge’” by Young asks readers to consider the universal use of the term knowledge (education) versus the actual meaning of knowledge (experience). Young proposes an alternative view of knowledge.
Both sections are fluid, which make the concepts easy to understand and support the book’s premise that the knowledge economy, as a seamless phenomenon, is invalid. The Reader invokes a call for a new direction in adult education discourse that reconceptualizes knowledge in a global economy. This new direction for knowledge counters the assumption that the curriculum for lifelong learning is a continuous phenomenon experienced when individuals take on learning tasks that “help” manage change within socially developed contexts (Kasworm et al., 2010). The Reader concludes with a reaffirmation of its critical position that the knowledge economy should be “debunked” by speaking directly to the policy makers and active change agents in adult learning. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index, but readers are still able to engage with the chapters as a result of the well-informed critical lenses that make the various contemporary and intellectual voices compiled in The Reader’s second section more salient. By the time readers reach the conclusion, they will have a solid understanding of the position advocated by the book’s contributors.