BookPDF Available

The Death of Human Capital? Its Failed Promise and How to Renew It in an Age of Disruption

  • October 2020
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190644307.001.0001
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 9780190644314
Authors:
Phillip Brown at Cardiff University
Phillip Brown
Hugh Lauder at University of Bath
Hugh Lauder
Sin Yi Cheung at Cardiff University
Sin Yi Cheung
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

Human capital theory, or the notion that there is a direct relationship between educational investment and individual and national prosperity, has dominated public policy on education and labor for the past fifty years. In The Death of Human Capital?, Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and Sin Yi Cheung argue that the human capital story is one of false promise: investing in learning isn’t the road to higher earnings and national prosperity. Rather than abandoning human capital theory, however, the authors redefine human capital in an age of smart machines.
Content uploaded by Phillip Brown
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Phillip Brown on Oct 29, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
New From Oxford
Human capital theory, or the notion that
there is a direct relationship between
educational investment and individual and
national prosperity, has dominated public policy
on education and labor for the past y years. In
e Death of Human Capital?, Phillip Brown, Hugh
Lauder, and Sin Yi Cheung argue that the human
capital story is one of false promise: investing
in learning isn’t the road to higher earnings and
national prosperity. Rather than abandoning
human capital theory, however, the authors redene
human capital in an age of smart machines.
Features
• Demonstrates that the human capital story
is one of a failed revolution that requires an
alternative approach to education, jobs and
income inequalities
• Redenes human capital in a way that more
accurately addresses today’s challenges presented
by global competition, new technologies,
economic inequalities, and national debt
• Rejects and challenges the conventional wisdom
that there is an automatic association between
learning and earning
30%
OFF!
October 2020 (US) | October 2020 (UK)
$27.95 $19.57 | £18.99 £13.29
Paperback | 9780190644314 | 320 pages
$99.00 $69.30 | £64.00 £44.80
Hardcover | 9780190644307 | 320 pages
Order online at www.oup.com/academic with promo code ASFLYQ6 to save 30%
Phillip Brown, Research Professor in the School of Social
Sciences, Cardi University
Hugh Lauder, Professor of Education and Political
Economy, University of Bath
Sin Yi Cheung, Professor of Sociology at the School of
Social Sciences, Cardi University
The Death of Human Capital?
I F P  H  R
I   A  D
Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, Sin Yi Cheung
Exploring the potential of micro-credentials: A systematic literature review
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2023
Micro-credentials have recently become a huge research interest, as they play an important role in the social, economic, and higher education sectors. Mindful of growing critique in some circles and recent publications, this paper offers an informed analysis of the potential of micro-credentials to foster post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery across a spectrum of dimensions, including supporting innovation in higher education institutions (HEIs). It reports a systematic literature review analysis of scientific articles published between 2015 and January 2022 on micro-credential research in the field of higher education. Results of a bibliometric and qualitative content analysis from 32 scientific articles provided insights into the potential of micro-credentials to foster post-pandemic recovery through social, economic, and higher education innovations. The findings suggest that the potential can be unfolded through multiple dimensions, like offering more possibilities for individuals to up-skill, re-skill and enter the labor market (economic context), enhancing lifelong learning by developing flexible personal learning pathways (social context), extending services in assessment and recognition of non-formal and informal learning, and introducing stackable credits and previous qualifications (higher education context). Even though the paper analyses scientific articles from the pre-pandemic and pandemic period, this study aim to systematize the results of other researchers and to offer sound insights into how further development in micro-credentials could contribute to the post-pandemic recovery.
The meaning of higher education credentials in graduate occupations: the view of recruitment consultants
Article
  • Dec 2022
Three influential theories are used to understand why employers value and seek out educational credentials in hiring. Qualifications can function as proof of productive skills (Human Capital Theory), as a signal of desirable characteristics (Signalling and Screening theories) or as a means for social closure (Closure Theory). Although these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they tend to be presented as alternatives in the literature This article aims to better understand why employers value Higher Education degrees within the labour market by assessing these theoretical explanations in particular in cases where employers do not value HE credentials highly. It draws on semi-structured interview data with external recruitment consultants in England (N = 45). The article finds support for each of the three theoretical perspectives. Yet, the findings demonstrate that employers’ reasoning can include more than one of the three theoretical perspectives, creating hybrid forms. The article evaluates the implications for the positional competition for graduate jobs.
Training policy among vulnerable unemployed groups: its contextualisation and difficult relationship with the capabilities approach
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2022
Vocational training, aimed mainly at the most vulnerable groups of unemployed, was introduced in Spain during the 1980s, at a time of rising unemployment. Since then, its main objective has been integrating these people into the labour market; however, the results are unsatisfactory. In this regard, the seven focus group interviews carried out in the province of Cadiz (Spain) with different vulnerable groups show how the courses contribute significantly to the psychosocial well-being of the students. The findings are augmented by others obtained from 12 in-depth interviews with representatives of training centres and a survey of collaborating training centres of the Junta de Andalucía. These results are analysed based on Sen’s capabilities approach and the human capital approach. In particular, the interviews with the centres representatives point to the existence of control relations on the part of the administration. Other factors, such as relationships between organisations and training regulations, also play a role. All this leads to the fact that the training for the unemployed does not favour the creation of opportunities for vulnerable groups and for centres to develop initiatives according to their needs and preferences, in line with the capability approach.
The grey zone between individualised goal and actual need: A CHAT analysis of student counselling within VET
Article
Full-text available
The ambiguous policy-concepts ‘effectivity’ and ‘needs’ were introduced to Finnish VET. This research utilises cultural historical activity theory to analyse how different conflicting motives emerge within student counselling and to discuss the prospective development of VET. Managerialist approaches to accountability and competency-based training form a tension between the needs of persons in counselling on the one hand and effectiveness of counselling in relation to economy on the other. We ask, what types of needs are met within VET and from whose perspective is VET effective? Data include ethnographic observations of counselling sessions (N = 32) and semi-structured interviews (N = 12). The results show the emphasised instrumental value of an individual in society. Measurement of atomistic and individualist achievements and institutional effectivity (accountability) have become important whilst actual needs and relational meaning for persons involved in counselling were obscured, viz. ‘the grey zone.’ Student counselling was skewed to focus on individualised goals and fragmented tasks whilst acknowledgement of human uniqueness and recognition of counselees/students as persons is needed. None of the latter provides measured accountability or direct and tangible competency and thus they become ignored. We call for democratic discussions about the meaning of VET, including persons of its primary concern: practitioners and students.
Stigma and spoiled identities: rescripting career norms for precariously employed academic staff
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2022
Despite the fact that precarious modes of employment have become increasingly common in academic careers, studies have shown that precarious contracts are often hidden and masked within higher education structures. This has important implications for the identities of those on such contracts. This paper uses Goffman’s work on stigma, ‘spoiled identities’, and identity management, and Archer’s concepts of morphostasis and morphogenesis as heuristic devices to examine the ways in which precariously employed academic staff experience their work and think about their identities. In doing so, the paper maps out the complex relationship between structure, agency, and identity in precarious academic careers and the ways in which participants reproduced embedded career norms and dominant career scripts through the process of masking the stigma of their precarity.
Gender and Creative Careers
Chapter
  • Oct 2022
This chapter outlines the intersecting concerns of gender and graduate outcomes in creative labour research. It situates both points of critical intervention in relation to the ‘creative turn’ in cultural policy and the focus on employability in higher education. It reports trend data on student graduation from Australia and the UK in creative fields of study for the years 2002–2017, and introduces the UNESCO model of the Cultural and Creative Industries which is adopted by the following chapters. It describes the benefits and limitations of working with graduate destination data for understanding the early career trajectories of creative graduates.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.