Knowledge Economy

The knowledge economy is the story of how new  technologies have combined with intellectual and knowledge assets - the "intangibles" of research, design, development, creativity, education, brand equity and human capital - to transform our economy.

The way in which in the economic, industrial and social landscape is changing has been poorly understood and documernted to date.

In April 2006, The Work Foundation began a three-year, £1.5 million research programme to provide  greater insight into the way  we work, how the economy is changing  and the social, corporate and political consequences of this.

The Knowledge Economy Programme

The first phase of the project sought  to identify what the knowledge economy was and the drivers of change.

We found that the key driver of change is a profound structural shift in global consumer, collective and business demand towards higher value added, knowledge intensive goods and services.

Learn more about this project

Work in Progress

As the Knowledge Economy programme has evolved we have gathered a solid body of evidence and started to answer some of the questions we started with.

The next phase focuses on the following research prorities:

  • What is knowledge work and who are "knowledge workers"?
  • Globalisation and the knowledge economy
  • Intangibles and the knowledge economy.

 

Sponsors

The programme has ten sponsors, a mix of private and public organisations, who contribute through regular steering group meetings, seminars and networks. These are: 

  • Rolls-Royce
  • Microsoft
  • PriceWaterhouseCoopers
  • Merck,Sharp and Dohme (first year)
  • Department for Health
  • Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
  • Department for Culture, Media and Sports
  • South East England Development Agency
  • EDF Energy
  • BBC

Papers Published