This book develops the notion of 'knowledge cultures' as a basis for understanding the possibilities of education and development in the age of knowledge capitalism. 'Knowledge cultures' refers to the cultural preconditions in the new production of knowledge and their basis in shared practices, embodying preferred ways of doing things often developed over many generations. These practices also point to the way in which cultures have different repertoires of representational and non-representational forms of knowing. The book discusses knowledge cultures in relation to claims for the new economy, as well as cultural economy and the politics of postmodernity. It focuses on national policy constructions of the knowledge economy, 'fast knowledge' and the role of the so-called 'new pedagogy' and social learning under these conditions.

Michael A. Peters is professor of education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of over twenty-five books and edited collections, including most recently Education, Globalization and the State in the Age of Terrorism (2005, Paradigm Publishers). Tina Besley is visiting research professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of many papers for international journals and a number of books, including Counseling Youth: Foucault, Power and the Ethics of Subjectivity (Praeger).

Chapter 1 Cultural Knowledge Economy: Education, the New Economy and the Communicative Turn
Chapter 2 The Politics of Postmodernity and the Promise of Education
Chapter 3 Education Policy in the Age of Knowledge Capitalism
Chapter 4 National Policy Constructions of the 'Knowledge Economy': Towards a Critique
Chapter 5 Classical Political Economy and the Role of Universities in the New Knowledge Economy
Chapter 6 The Theatre of Fast Knowledge: Performative Epistemologies
Chapter 7 The New Pedagogy and Social Learning: Current Pedagogic Research and Practice
Chapter 8 Theorising Educational Practices: The Politico-Ethical Choices
Chapter 9 Knowledge Networks, Innovation and Development: Education After Modernization
Chapter 10 Educational Policy Futures