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Lisbonizing versus Financializing Europe? The Lisbon Agenda and the (un)Making of the European Knowledge-Based Economy

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  • Kean Birch

    (Department of Social Science, York University, Canada)

  • Vlad Mykhnenko

    (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, England)

Abstract

The Lisbon Agenda was meant to make the European Union ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy (KBE) in the world’ by 2010. As that date has now come and gone, it is apt to ask whether the Lisbon Agenda achieved its objective. We engage with this very question by analyzing new empirical material on the supposed transition to a KBE. Theoretically, we problematize the very notion that EU policies promoted the emergence of a KBE by highlighting how the Lisbon Agenda was tied to the financialization of the European economy. Our findings illustrate the abject failure of the EU's decade-long strategy to foster a new economy and better employment opportunities. We show that the main winners of the EU's economic strategy have been the finance sector and those who work in it. In summary, we argue that, despite the earlier assurances of Bell and Drucker, it is not the scientist or engineer but the banker who has been empowered to command a higher price in the new world of the KBE.

Suggested Citation

  • Kean Birch & Vlad Mykhnenko, 2014. "Lisbonizing versus Financializing Europe? The Lisbon Agenda and the (un)Making of the European Knowledge-Based Economy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 32(1), pages 108-128, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:32:y:2014:i:1:p:108-128
    DOI: 10.1068/c1246r
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Laura Porak, 2021. "Governing the Ungovernable - Recontextualizations of 'Competition' in European Policy Discourse," ICAE Working Papers 126, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    2. Kean Birch, 2016. "Emergent Imaginaries and Fragmented Policy Frameworks in the Canadian Bio-Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Ricardo Méndez & Simón Sánchez-Moral & Jorge Malfeito-Gaviro, 2016. "Employment changes in knowledge-based industries in large urban areas of Spain: Impact of the economic crisis and austerity policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(5), pages 963-980, August.

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