Traces 5: Universities in Translation: The Mental Labour of Globalization

Cognitive Capitalism and Education: New Frontiers

Cognitive Capitalism and Education T R A C E S : 5 317 coGniTive caPiTalism and educaTion: new FronTiers yann moulier bouTanG — Translated from French by Philippe Bonin Beyond the Thesis of the Commodification of Education Whatever the term being used — “cognitive capitalism,” “knowledge-based economy,” or “intellectual capital” — and whether or not one agrees that knowledge is at the core of a new system of accumulation that is increasingly predominant, it has become clear at the present time it is the activity of producing knowledge and intellectual human resources that is more central than the end product of that activity, that is to say, knowledge codified in software and databases.1 What we call “human capital,” or intellectual capital, conditions the capacity to innovate. In and of itself, such a capacity to innovate would favor resistance against increased and generalized competition between economies at a global level. In this sense, it is undeniable that education and the entire learning apparatus have taken on great strategic importance. However, in following such a line of thinking, one quickly faces a paradox. In Europe, for example, neo-liberalism seems to be a force that is attacking the state’s commitment to education as a branch of public service. By imposing new regulations (a form of governance) on education, neo-liberalism has certainly contributed to the privatization of parts of the learning process. At the same time, the declining rate of economic growth in the European Union after the April 2000 summit in Lisbon led member states to reaffirm, at least in their declarations, the Yann Moulier Boutang 318 T R A C E S : 5 need for a decisive recovery of the European zone by 2010, one which would make it “one of the most productive economies in the world.” The same leaders have emphasized ambitious educational goals: guaranteed education for everyone, access to continuing education at any age, and reduction of the technological gap with the United States. Are we dealing here with an official policy, produced just for effect, that conceals the darker reality of a Malthusian commodification of education and learning, which would subject them to the pressure of immediate return on investments? If one adopts such an optic, one cannot fail to be impressed by the overwhelming infiltration of the educational process by economics and its logic, all over the world. It appears that educational institutions have become increasingly dominated by notions like yield on investment, cost/benefit analysis, and efficacy in the spatial distribution of new investments. Productivity of teachers and other personnel are now measured through a variety of quantitative indicators, ranging from students’ performance on examinations, their success rates in such examinations, numbers of theses defended, and calculations of budget expenditures per student. When we add to this the emergence of many other phenomena, such as a new emphasis on the need for educational institutions to attract their own funding (partly through development of new hybrid, public/ private identities), the notion of customizing educational services for individual students, and a broader shift from a logic of public service to one of satisfying the end user — even the customer — in education, one might indeed wonder if all these elements in combination do not clinch the case of those who vigorously denounce the commodification of education. Of course, it is always tempting to selectively retain the ideas of economists. From Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, one might adopt the notion of “human capital” (developed in 1962). Or, one might invoke the idea of “endogenous growth,” more recently developed by Robert Lucas, of the same institution.These theories hew closely to the neo-classical matrix; they were major inspiration for what have been called theThatcher and Reagan counter-revolutions. Certainly such explanatory concepts go hand in hand with neo-liberal views and policies. They assert, for example, that education will benefit from a reduction of the role of the State, and they place the burden of education squarely on the shoulders of the individual, who thus becomes the entrepreneur of his/her own bildung. It is even tempting to combine such neoclassical arguments with Marxist, Cognitive Capitalism and Education T R A C E S : 5 319 regulation-prone, critical (or “radical,” as they are called on the other side of the Atlantic) theories which have described neo-liberalism as a monetarization of the economy. Such views have been advanced by French economists like Fr...