Capitalizing Knowledge: Essays on the History of Business Education in Canada (review)

The premise of Capitalizing Knowledge is that business education in Canada has not received the attention by historians that other professional disciplines have. Accordingly, this work sees itself as an initial step in rectifying this situation. It takes up this task largely by providing a series of case studies of business education. The institutions examined include École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal, the University of Toronto, Queen's, York, Wilfrid Laurier, Calgary, St Mary's, and Memorial. Also included is a chapter on the history of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada ( ASAC) as well as an opening and concluding chapter by Barry Boothman.

In her introduction, Barbara Austin refers to the first and last chapters by Boothman as 'bookends,' which provide a context for the other contributions. This metaphor does not do justice to Boothman, who provides the two most substantial chapters in the book. In the first chapter, he offers a broad history of management education in Canada, which he divides into three phases. Characterizing each phase by a distinct conception of knowledge - useful, practical, and professional - Boothman is concerned to trace business education from its first offerings up through its efforts to achieve the same status as the more established professional disciplines in the academy. In doing so, the author moves across different levels of analysis and between diverse realms of influence, combining broader political and economic factors with social and cultural traditions and individual academic genealogies and interactions. The result is a readable but nuanced account that enables the reader to makes sense of developments both in and across different programs. Boothman's concluding chapter offers a sober evaluation of the current state of business education in Canada and points to key challenges that need to be taken up if business education is to achieve the same academic status as other professional disciplines, to which it so clearly aspires.

Sandwiched between Boothman's contributions, the individual cases, which are intended to be the heart of the work, unfortunately pale by contrast. While the editor has done a good job of selecting a representative sample of business programs, the chapters are not generally characterized by the same critical approach evident in Boothman's chapters. Rather, they tend to document the roles of key personalities in the development of academic programs. One exception is the chapter on Hautes études commerciales by Harvey, which provides an account of the origins of the school that firmly locates it in the political and cultural context of its day. In their article on Memorial, Sexty and Pecore also attempt to offer a more analytical account of the nature of the development of business education in their institution. They do so, however, from the rather limited perspective of organization science.

Most of the other chapters are even less ambitious in their account of developments, tending more to provide a chronology of events and a description of programs. While lots of facts and figures are supplied - about changes in course offerings and degree programs, number of faculty and students, research grants won, etc. - there is relatively little critical analysis and evaluation. Most of these chapters are written by 'insiders' who were actively involved in the development of the programs on which they are reporting. While this probably provides important details not documented elsewhere, it tends to give some of these chapters more an air of 'memoirs' than of academic analysis. It is very readable and informative at one level, but little critical distance is evident.

Management education in Canada, as well as elsewhere, has historically been denigrated as theoretically ungrounded and methodologically sloppy, and overly reliant on anecdotal evidence, as the editor and contributors to this work are fully aware. Indeed, while not wishing to downplay historic problems in the development of the discipline, clearly one unstated intention of this book is to demonstrate the progress that management education in Canada has made, especially in...