ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to build a foundation for the concept of knowledge-based economization. It examines the various processes, discourses and imaginaries of the knowledge-intensive economy through an inquiry into a selective set of literature which either implicitly or explicitly discuss the knowledge-based economy as a particular economic and political order. The chapter highlights throughout that knowledge-intensive capitalism is constituted, through discourses and practices, not only as a particular kind of novel economic strategy but also, and perhaps more importantly, as a political process with enormous societal and socio-spatial implications. The unique conceptual fuzziness of the knowledge-based economy and its sister terms is indeed constitutive of the power of knowledge-based economization. The basic discursive components of knowledge-based economization have remained relatively intact since the 1990s. One particular discursive element of knowledge-based economization has remained largely unchanged and unchallenged. Knowledge-intensive capitalism can be comprehended as closely interlinked with particular built environments.
