On Mobots and Classrooms: The Converging Languages of the New Capitalism and Schooling

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Abstract
Owing to social and technological changes, we are witnessing the beginnings of a global, hyper-competitive `new capitalism' reorganizing economic and social relationships within and between businesses. This article argues that the themes and images of the new capitalism are part of a much larger `thematic convergence' in which quite disparate things—like minds, molecules, media, ecosystems and organizations—are being talked about in new and similar ways. I argue that the `master story' here centers around what I call `non-authoritarian distributed systems'. After discussing this master story, I turn to two specific domains, which are, in quite different ways, getting `aligned' with the themes of the new capitalism. The first domain is cognitive science as it applies new ideas about what constitutes `knowledge' and `control' in school reform efforts. In this case, I argue that cognitive science is progressively aligning itself with the new capitalism to the mutual benefit of both. The second domain is the radical `postmodern' critique of capitalism. In this case, I argue that the language of the radical critique of capitalism is being coopted by the new capitalism itself.

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