The political economy of knowledge production : The Knowledge Exchange Framework, Performativity and Social Justice

Banga, Sunil and Komljenovic, Janja (2024) The political economy of knowledge production : The Knowledge Exchange Framework, Performativity and Social Justice. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Knowledge production, its use, and appropriation is a social and political activity as much as it is a technical process that seeks to codify and transfer knowledge to industry. In 2020, the UK Government introduced a Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the knowledge exchange process, that is, the production, use, and in some cases, appropriation of knowledge produced in universities by industry for commercial purposes. As far as can be determined, there is no documented account of how the KEF is going to potentially impact the UK HE sector, influence university researchers’ behaviour, and what are the implications for social justice therein. Given that the aim of KEF policy is to enable universities to better understand and improve their performance with regard to the efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public funding, the KEF policy is potentially a very powerful driver of the potential changes taking place in UK HE research ecosystem. This research explores the impact potential of the introduction of KEF on the process of knowledge production and exchange in the UK, that is, how knowledge is produced and disseminated for use / appropriation by industry, through a constructionist-interpretive approach. Providing insights from a political economy perspective, the research has exposed the further economization of the knowledge production processes. In particular, it helps understand to what extent the KEF is seeking to strengthen the state bureaucratic control over academic activity, and to what extent it positions academia instrumentally, subordinate both to the state and the market. This research will enable policy makers and institutions to understand the nature of the KEF, its possible impact and influence, and help support an assessment of their role in terms of where intervention may be required to mitigate the most egregious effects of the KEF policy.