Paradigms of the Knowledge Economy

Abstract

Contemporary US educational policy reflects a particular set of discourses that elide with forecasts on a global knowledge economy. Tensions between various readings of KE, however, suggest that these discourses are not monolithic. Employing different methodologies and reaching different and sometimes contradictory conclusions, discourses on KE overlap a broad range of fields and disciplines in the production and consumption of policymaking. Indeed, Peters (2009b, pp. 2–3) lists some 20 separate discursive strands on KE overlapping sociology, philosophy, and economics that inform multiple readings of postindustrial society (table 3.1).