Neoliberal epistemology: From the impossibility of knowing to human capital

Abstract

Today?s discussions on education policy mostly consist of uncritical shuffling of allegedly neutral and merely technical or practical notions such as life-long learning, learning to learn or problem-solving and are based on similarly uncritical acceptance of socio-economic theories of the knowledge society, which is supposed to present an objective framework of education reforms. The aim of this article is to sketch the history of mentioned notions and to present a critique of theories of the knowledge society through an analysis of its tacit political content. To this aim, we took upon early neoliberal epistemology (Hayek and Polanyi) as well as its transition towards theories of human capital (Drucker and Machlup).Danasnje rasprave o politici obrazovanja koje treba da predstavljaju objektivan okvir obrazovnih reformi uglavnom se svode na nekriticko mesanje navodno neutralnih i cisto tehnickih ili prakticnih pojmova kao sto su: dozivotno obrazovanje, ucenje ucenja ili resavanje problema i pri tom se temelje na jednako nekritickom prihvatanju socio-ekonomskih teorija o drustvu znanja. Cilj ovog rada je da skicira istoriju pomenutih pojmova i da kroz analizu njihovog prikrivenog politickog sadrzaja ponudi kritiku teorija o drustvu znanja. U tu svrhu, dovescemo u pitanje ranu neoliberalnu epistemologiju (Hajek i Polanji) kao i njenu tranziciju ka teorijama ljudskog kapitala (Druker i Mahlup).