The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

‘The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope’ brings together contributions by an expert on policies, management and economics of innovation and knowledge. It offers original insights in processes of innovation and learning and it draws implications for economic theory and public policy. It introduces the reader to important concepts such as innovation systems and the learning economy. It throws a new light on economic development and opens up for a new kind of economics – the economics of hope. It offers a fresh perspective on many of the most important global challenges of today showing how full attention to the characteristics of the learning economy needs to be combined with innovation in global governance if we want to be able to handle these challenges.

‘The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope’ presents work published between 1985 and 1992 and introduces the core concepts innovation as an interactive process. The analysis demonstrates that new technology is developed in an interaction between individuals and organisations and that innovation would not thrive in an economy similar to textbook models of pure markets and perfect competition. It also presents articles that were published between 2004 and 2010. These may be seen as further developments and evidence-based consolidation of ideas that were presented more than ten years earlier. It presents the learning economy through the perspective of the economics of knowledge. The concluding part of the book includes three papers that make use of the conceptual frameworks developed in an analysis of China’s innovation system and policy, Europe’s crisis and Africa’s underdevelopment.

‘The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope’ offers original insights in processes of innovation and learning and draws implications for economic theory and public policy. The book introduces the reader to important concepts such as innovation systems and the learning economy. It throws new light on economic development and opens up horizons for a new kind of economics – the economics of hope.

‘The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope’ brings together the most important contributions by an expert on policies, management and economics of innovation and knowledge. It offers original insights in processes of innovation and learning and it draws implications for economic theory and public policy. It introduces the reader to important concepts such as innovation systems and the learning economy. It throws a new light on economic development and opens up for a new kind of economics – the economics of hope. It offers a fresh perspective on many of the most important global challenges of today showing how full attention to the characteristics of the learning economy needs to be combined with innovation in global governance.

The analysis demonstrates that new technology is developed in an interaction between individuals and organizations and that innovation would not thrive in an economy similar to textbook models of pure markets and perfect competition. It also shows that innovation requires that scientific knowledge is combined with experience based learning and that the performance of innovation systems therefore reflects the combination of research efforts and organizational learning. Growing inequality in income and in access to knowledge and learning is presented as a threat to social cohesion and global well-being. In the concluding part of the book the conceptual framework is used to study how China’s innovation system and policy, Europe’s crisis and underdevelopment in Africa interact is shaping an imbalanced and crisis ridden world system. A new kind of economics, policy learning and new regimes of global governance are presented as elements of hope for the future.

Preface; Part I : Introduction; 1. Contributions to the Learning Economy - Overview and Context; Part II : Innovation as Interactive Process; 2. Product Innovation and User-Producer Interaction; 3. Innovation as an Interactive Process - from User-Producer Interaction to National Systems of Innovation; 4. National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning; 5. The Learning Economy Part III: Economics of Knowledge and Learning; 6. From the Economics of Knowledge to the Learning Economy; 7. Forms of Knowledge and Modes of Innovation; 8. How Europe's Economies Learn: A Comparison of Work Organisation and Innovation Mode for the EU-15; 9. Post Script: Innovation System Research -Where it Came From and Where it Might Go; Part IV: Continental Transformations and Global Challenges; 10. China’s Innovation System and the Move toward Harmonious Growth and Endogenous Innovation; 11. The 'New Deal' as a Response to the Euro-Crisis; 12. Growth and Structural Change in Africa: Development Strategies for the Learning Economy; 13. National Innovation Systems and Globalisation; Part V: Economics of Hope or Despair: What Next?14. The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope; Notes on Contributors; Index