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3 Clark Kerr: From the Industrial to the Knowledge Economy Paddy Riley Ever since its publication in 1963, Clark Kerr's The IAes of the I'rr~i7je~~i[y has been an exemplary document o f its era. m i t t e n ~ v h e n college enrollments Jvere skyroclzeting, federal funding for scientific research was abundant, and predictions about a burgeoning "lzno~vledge economy" Jvere novel, Kerr's boolz is a prototypical account o f the golden age o f the American research university O f course, since it \\.as followed so closely by the Free Speech Movement at the university over ~vhich Kerr presided, most scholars tend to read The IAes of the I,ili-oe~sitj wit11a fair amount o f irony Xfter all, Kerr's impassive confidence in the future o f the "multiversity"led him to describe an incipient student movement as but a "mild counter-revolt."' Interpretations o f Kerr's career as an educator follo~v those o f his most famous book. O n the one hand, Kerr is the liberal administrator ~ v h o brought universal access and international distinction to higher education in California;o n the other, he is the bumbling bureaucrat ~ v h o mismanaged campus unrest and ignored the legitimate political dissent o f university students . While each o f these vie~vshas its merits, the debate surrounding Clark Kerr laclzs historical sophistication. Since criticisms and praise both tend to gravitate to~rardthe climacteric years o f the 1960s, little attention has so far been paid to Kerr's early career as a labor economist and arbitrator and its relationship to his later role in the universityThis disregard is surprising, since the portrait o f the "multiversity" Kerr would become famous for in the 1960s gro~vsdirectly out o f his earlier ~vorlz in the field o f industrial relations. From a historical perspective, in other words, The IAes of the I,ili-oe~sitjis not only a product o f its time, but the outcome o f a long intellectual and vocational development. I t marlzs the culmination o f Clark Kerr's analytic shift from the industrial to the lzno~vledge economy This intellectual development began in the middle o f a Central Valley cotton-piclzer's strilze in 1933,when Kerr, a young graduate student at Berlzeley first became interested in the peaceful resolution o f labor disputes.' His faith in mediation was ramified by his experience during World Tl'ar 11,~vhere as a member National Tl'ar Labor Board, he ~vorked to maintain industrial 72 Paddy Riley peace and production through the establishment o f a stable industrial relations regime. Xfter the \\.as, Kerr, along wit11 a number o f labor economists, helped to develop a theory lzno~vnas "industrial pluralism," ~vhich suggested that the gro~vt11 o f collective bargaining had transformed the U.S. econom!; so recently in a period o f crisis, into a relatively benign structure. In the 1930s, ho~vever, his career changed course. In 1952, he became the chancellor o f the University o f California at Berlzele7; and in 1938, president o f the University o f California.Throughout the decade, moreover, he Jvas engaged in a collaborative research project wit11 three o f the more prominent labor economists o f his generation-John Dunlop, Fredericlz Harbison, and Charles Myers-that ~vould redefine his intellectual objectives . Their research agenda took them far from the mainstay o f industrial relations, the collective bargaining relationship, into subjects that Kerr ~vouldpopularize in The I'kes of the I,Tr~i-rje~sit~-the "human resources" o f managerial and scientific ~vorkers and the lzey role o f lzno~vledge in economic gro~vth. By the time they publislled their global theory o f economic development, I~ldlrst~inlisrtl alld I~ldlrst~-ial,\lan, in ISGO, they~vere convinced that education Jvas "the handmaiden o f industrialism." This move from labor to education suggests that the career o f ClarlzKerr is marked by a turn to~vardthe concept o f "postcapitalism" that Ho~rard Briclz identifies in this v o l ~ ~ m e . ~ Early on, Kerr had believed in the power o f social institutions to shape economic reality His ~vorlz in labor economics reinforced this aspect o f his thought, and provided him wit11 a compelling model for economic harmony in the form o f collective bargaining. This experience Jvas pivotal for Kerr, as concepts...

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