The Knowledge Economy

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A new vanguard of production, the knowledge economy, emerges in the world's major economies. However, in each sector, it appears as a fringe that excludes the vast majority of workers and companies. The result of this exclusion is to depress growth and exacerbate inequality. Following the example of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, who argued that the best way to understand the economic regime and its possibilities for transformation is to study the most advanced production of the time, Roberto Mangabeira Unger analyzes what the knowledge economy is and what it could become. For Unger, the deepening of advanced production and its dissemination—inclusive vanguardism—are twin endeavors. Together, they have revolutionary potential: to accelerate growth, reverse inequality, and empower all participants in the productive process. To effect this transformation, it is necessary to change not only productive practices and economic institutions but also education, culture, and politics. It is also essential to rely on ideas that established economic theory does not provide. Unger outlines the broad lines of these alternatives for social organization and economic thought.