[P2P-F] Digital Taylorism, Human Capital and the Knowledge Economy

Wed May 4 20:29:45 CEST 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Digital Taylorism, Human Capital and the Knowledge
Economy

Editors: Daniel
Araya and Michael A. Peters

This issue of the Journal
of Global Studies in Education will focus on “digital Taylorism”, and the growing
influence of technology in mediating industrialized modes of work and learning.

Over the past decade it has become commonplace to claim that
economic progress depends upon human
capital and the exploitation of knowledge. As one of the major areas of
public policy investment, governments in advanced economies have begun restructuring
education systems to reflect the need to develop highly skilled “knowledge workers”.
Workers are now routinely encouraged to upgrade and broaden their skills
through formal education and lifelong learning. What is clear, however, is that globalization is reconfiguring all parts
of the labor market including “left-brain” knowledge industries (Pink, 2005). Like
the migration of low-wage labor before it, "cognitive labor " is now embedded
in a global labor market. As a rising tide of
knowledge workers begins to grow outside of rich countries, predictions of a
Western-biased knowledge economy look increasingly naive. 

Perhaps even more
problematic is the growing power of computers to automate labor. While early
industrial machines simply leveraged physical labor, information technology has
begun to replace labor entirely. Brown, Ashton and Lauder (2010), for
example, argue that the capacities of technology to extract, codify and digitize
knowledge work has begun a long-term process that is industrializing human
capital. Here, advances in computing power and software design enable companies
to package and distribute cognitive labor, and to manage globally “industrialized”
labor systems. This “digital Taylorism” enables innovation to be translated
into routines that might require some degree of education but not the kind of
creativity and innovation that is often associated with the knowledge economy. 

In this issue of JGSE, we are particularly concerned with critical
analysis of the knowledge economy. How
far will automation go over the coming decades? What is the university’s proper
role in a high-tech global age? Does technology in the knowledge economy
necessarily lead to digital Taylorism? How dependent are companies today on
national education systems for the supply of skilled labor? What can
governments in advanced capitalist countries do to stem the tide of labor
market migration? 

Articles for Consideration

Articles for submission should be no
more than 6000 words. It is
essential that an Abstract (100-200 words) be provided with each article. The author's name and affiliation
should appear at the beginning of the article, together with full mailing and
email addresses. Abstracts should be sent by email to: daniel at jgse.org 

Deadline for
Abstracts: June 1, 2011

Deadline for final submission: Sept 1,
2011

All papers submitted
will be evaluated using the Journal of Global Studies in Education normal peer
review process. All submissions are published in accordance with
international academic standards for research publication. Please also see the Journal’s information
for authors: http://www.jgse.org/jgse/index.php/Journal/about/submissions

EDITORIAL CONTACTS

Daniel Araya

Global Studies in
Education

Educational Policy Studies

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

daniel at jgse.org

Michael A. Peters

Global Studies in
Education

Educational Policy Studies

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

mpet001 at illinois.edu

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