Michael A. Peters is professor of education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of over twenty-five books and edited collections, including most recently Education, Globalization and the State in the Age of Terrorism (2005, Paradigm Publishers). Tina Besley is visiting research professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of many papers for international journals and a number of books, including Counseling Youth: Foucault, Power and the Ethics of Subjectivity (Praeger).

Building Knowledge Cultures is perhaps one of the richest, philosophically oriented works to come along in quite some time-at least in the arena of higher education and development. [It] is an in-depth theoretical resource that goes to great lengths in elaborating key constructs and concerns linked to the knowledge economy, development, and the role of education. The 10 chapters (plus an "Introduction" and a "Postscript") are theoretically and conceptually illuminating, grounded to some extent in practical policy decisions and strategies. Overall, we see Building Knowledge Cultures as one of the more significant works on the new knowledge economy and the relevance of higher education.

• Chapter 1 Cultural Knowledge Economy: Education, the New Economy and the Communicative TurnChapter 2 The Politics of Postmodernity and the Promise of EducationChapter 3 Education Policy in the Age of Knowledge CapitalismChapter 4 National Policy Constructions of the 'Knowledge Economy': Towards a CritiqueChapter 5 Classical Political Economy and the Role of Universities in the New Knowledge EconomyChapter 6 The Theatre of Fast Knowledge: Performative EpistemologiesChapter 7 The New Pedagogy and Social Learning: Current Pedagogic Research and PracticeChapter 8 Theorising Educational Practices: The Politico-Ethical ChoicesChapter 9 Knowledge Networks, Innovation and Development: Education After ModernizationChapter 10 Educational Policy Futures