ABSTRACT
This chapter1 examines the issues that inform the relationship between academic
modes of production and the knowledge economy. It is not content for this examination
to take place against the background of presuppositions that the knowledge economy
is a distinct subsystem, or even the dominant system, informing the development
of capitalism, or that it has self-evident implications for the direction of higher
education. Nor is it content to invoke outdated notions of academic freedom, or join
those voices that speak of the ‘academic’ as if it had no relevance to contemporary
issues. Therefore, it exists in a place that is in the process of becoming, but is not yet
fully developed as the site of public debate concerning the role and place of higher
education in the future.
