ABSTRACT
The condition identified describes the state of knowledge, culture, science, literature, and the arts in the 'most highly developed societies', by implication the societies of the West. But the diagnosis implies an emerging more general condition, one that extends beyond knowledge per se, one in respect of which there are variations both between and within countries; a condition that is articulated with a complex set of developments that are increasingly effective on a global scale. The developments in question, namely the impact of micro-electronic technologies of information, communication and learning, and the accelerating commercialisation of knowledge, as well as the questions of legitimation they provoke - 'who decides what knowledge is, and who knows what needs to be decided?' (Lyotard 1986: 9) - are argued to have far-reaching consequences for the nationstate and its influence over civil society. The growth of multinational corporations and the shift towards more flexible forms of capital accumulation have already effected a reduction in the capacity of the nation-state to exercise regulatory control over economic life. Continuing developments in computer technology and telematics are exacerbating the situation. As Lyotard observes,
The reopening of the world market, a return to vigorous economic competition, the breakdown of the hegemony of American capitalism, the decline of the socialist alternative, a probable opening of the Chinese market - these and many other factors are already . . . preparing States for a serious reappraisal of the role they have been accustomed to playing since the 1930s.
