Learning to Save the Future is an elegant book that analyzes the logic of the new world of increasing complexity and interconnectivity that is digital cap- italism to explore the future that depends upon the capacity of education. It is a bold vision that argues for an alternative set of values beyond a techno- economic determinism that revitalizes notions of emancipation, equality and human freedom. Alex Means has written a compelling book with wide appeal. Michael A. Peters, Professor, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of Waikato, New Zealand; Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Nervous about the future? You should be. Professor Means takes on the cur- rent dominant ideologies such as the faith that Silicon Valley and the creative class will rescue us from looming disasters resulting from technological and educational fixes that undermine our ability to think critically about the future. He deftly shows us how transforming education into a collaborative and just social process is central to avoiding a dystopian future and creating a world characterized by equality and democracy. A book to be read and reread for its many insights. David Hursh, Professor, Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, University of Rochester, USA Learning to Save the Future Mainstream economists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs claim that unfettered capitalism and digital technology can unlock a future of unbounded prosperity, create endless high-paying jobs, and solve the world’s vast social and ecological problems. Realizing this future of abundance purportedly rests in the transformation of human poten- tial into innovative human capital through new twenty-first-century forms of education. In this new book, Alex Means challenges this view. Stagnating economic growth and runaway inequality have emerged as the “normal” condition of advanced capitalism. Simultaneously, there has been a worldwide educational expansion and a growing surplus of college-educated workers relative to their demand in the world econo- my. This surplus is complicated by an emerging digital revolution driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning that generates worker- displacing innovations and immaterial forms of labor and valorization. Learning to Save the Future argues that rather than fostering progress and mass intellectuality, educational development is being constrained by a value structure subordinated to twenty-first-century capitalism and technology. Human capabilities, from creativity to design, engineering, and communication, are conceived narrowly as human capital, valued in terms of economic productivity and growth. Similarly, global problems such as the erosion of employment and climate change are conceived as educational problems to be addressed through business solutions and the digitalization of education. This thought-provoking account pro- vides a cognitive map of this condition, offering alternatives through critical analyses of education and political economy, technology and labor, creativity and value, and power and ecology. Alexander J. Means is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Psychological Foundations of Education at SUNY Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York. Critical Interventions: Politics, Culture, and the Promise of Democracy Series editors: Henry A. Giroux, Susan Searls Giroux, and Kenneth J. Saltman Twilight of the Social: Resurgent Publics in the Age of Disposability Henry A. Giroux (2011) Youth in Revolt: Reclaiming a Democratic Future Henry A. Giroux (2012) The Failure of Corporate School Reform Kenneth J. Saltman (2012) Toward a New Common School Movement Noah De Lissovoy, Alexander J. Means, and Kenneth J. Saltman (2015) The Great Inequality Michael D. Yates (2016) Elsewhere in America: The Crisis of Belonging in Contemporary Culture David Trend (2016) Scripted Bodies: Corporate Power, Smart Technology, and the Undoing of Public Education Kenneth J. Saltman (2016) Gender for the Warfare State: Literature of Women in Combat Robin Truth Goodman (2016) Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income Paul Buchheit (2017) The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism Henry A. Giroux (2017) Learning to Save the Future: Rethinking Education and Work in an Era of Digital Capitalism Alexander J. Means (2018) Learning to Save the Future Rethinking Education and Work in an Era of Digital Capitalism Alexander J. Means First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Alexander J. Means to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-21261-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-21262-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-45020-9 (ebk) Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgments viii Chapter 1 Solutionism: Cancelling the Future 1 Chapter 2 Economism: Ethics and Ideology 17 Chapter 3 Precarity: The Ticking Time Bomb 37 Chapter 4 Creativity: Education and the Common 68 Chapter 5 D igitization: Algorithmic Learning Machines 97 Chapter 6 Automation: Displacement and Rupture 126 Chapter 7 F uturity: Capitalism and Mass Intellectuality 153 Index 170 vii preface and acknowledgments We live in a world of increasing complexity and interconnection—a world beset by myriad problems, such as inequality, joblessness, racism and ethnic conflict, weapons proliferation, and ecological crises. It is also a world in which brilliant technologies are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and big data to reconfigure possibilities for how we produce, work, engineer, learn, design, and engage in politics, albeit typically within a narrow set of assumptions and priorities. Within the mainstream orbit of TED Talks and Ideas Festivals, it is often assumed that capitalism and digital technology can unlock a future of endless prosperity, create endless high-paying jobs, and solve the world’s vast social and ecological problems. The key to realizing this future of pros- perity and abundance is often said to rest in the transformation of human potential into innovative human capital through new forms of learning. Education as a means of economic and technological innova- tion is the default engine of future progress. Learning to Save the Future explores the sociological limitations of this logic. It asks the question: How can the future be said to depend on the capacity of educational systems and learning practices to pro- duce new human capabilities such as inventiveness, problem solving, creativity, and innovative knowledge production, while at the same time the human-development mission of K-12 and higher education is viii preface and acknowledgments ix eroded, defunded, and routinized, and its deeper cultural and i ntellectual foundations are emptied of substance? The book suggests this contra- diction reflects an enclosure of sociality and politics, whereby educa- tional imagination is constrained by a value structure subordinated to twenty-first-century capitalism and technology. Human capabilities, from creativity to design, engineering, and communication, are con- ceived narrowly as forms of human capital, valued in terms of economic productivity and growth. Similarly, challenges such as the erosion of livelihoods and expanding inequality are conceived as educational problems to be addressed through integrative business solutions and the digital transformation of education systems, primarily to serve cor- porate and financial interests, rather than the commonweal. Moreover, for perhaps the majority of people today, education is experienced as little more than an austere competition for an increasingly precarious and automated “gig” economy. The position taken in this book is that we need a different set of values for education and society beyond eco- nomic and technical determinism—values rooted in the emancipatory potential of education to enhance freedom and equality for all. This book reflects my own idiosyncratic investigations in recent years and certainly does not exhaust the kinds of questions that could be useful for thinking about educational change. The analysis has been influenced by a desire to understand at a deeper level the economic and ideological processes that are transforming education and society including the relationship between education and the economic strug- gles of young people since the Great Recession, human creativity and educational administration within cognitive capitalism, and the intensi- fying push for “disrupting” education through Silicon Valley platforms. While attempting to foreground global processes, I draw examples mainly from the United States, which is the context where I live and work. This necessarily informs and narrows the perspectives offered. The text straddles the borders of political economy, critical theory, and sociology of education. It is not a traditional scholarly monograph, nor is it written explicitly for a general audience. It is a hybrid. While all errors of judgment, large or small, are entirely my own, I have compiled numerous debts while writing the book. I first want