Imaginaries of Education and Innovation in the European Union

Abstract

The chapter explores the rationale, benchmarks and assumptions on political relationships according to which the European Union designs its policies in the areas of education and innovation. This analysis unveils how the geopolitics of knowledge spells out key processes that take place within the European Union. Politics intermingles with knowledge insofar as decision-makers want the public sector, business and individuals to implement innovative practices that strengthen the economy. Politics and knowledge are also the basis of education and training policies. Politics shapes geographies by shifting the scale of governance. Knowledge has greatly facilitated these changes of scale, not least because the EU has developed sets of regional indicators for education and innovation. I look at the discourses relating to the Innovation Union and the EU Skills Agenda, both of which consider that the regions of the EU will avail of unprecedented synergies if policy-makers build both comprehensive innovation systems and education and training systems. When addressing regions, the official EU discourse assumes that these systems generate some important synergies. Although this image assumes that policies can easily trigger this virtuous circle of innovation and education, it overlooks that regions are not homogeneous and sidelines any aspect of lifelong learning that is not closely connected with employment.