The processes of economic globalization and accelerating technological change have led to changes in economic and social life at a global level. New technologies, such as the TICs, systems of artificial intelligence, scanning, connectivity, nanotechnology, and biotechnology, among others, have transformed the national productive structures and human capital that require technologies disruptive today. In this context, education has become the main element of the knowledge society and training of human capital that demands a knowledge-based economy. The objective of the chapter is to analyze the relationship between human capital formations in the construction of a society of knowledge in Mexico. The structure is organized in three sections: 1) an analysis of the knowledge society, 2) the formation of human capital and the institutions of higher education in the knowledge society, and 3) human capital formation and its relationship in the construction of a society of knowledge in Mexico.
TopBrief Analysis Of The Knowledge Society
Different authors agree that the term knowledge society was used for the first time in 1969 by Peter Drucker (UNESCO, 2005; Casas, 2010).
Years later, in the nineties, the concept was deepened in other investigations such as Robin Mansell’s or Nico Stehr’s. The notion of knowledge society is also inseparable from the studies on the information society generated by the development of cybernetics and [telematics]. At the end of the nineties, the trilogy of Manuel Castells, devoted to the “information age”, with its relevant analysis on the information society, synthesized in a certain way the transformations and tendencies described or glimpsed by the first precursors: penetration of power by technology, new economy of scientific knowledge, changes in work, etc. (UNESCO, 2005).
A central element of knowledge societies is the ability to identify, produce, process, transform, disseminate and use information with a view to creating and applying the knowledge necessary for human development. While the notion of the information society is based on technological progress, the concept of knowledge societies includes much wider social, ethical and political dimensions. The world information society only makes sense if it fosters the development of knowledge societies and is assigned as a purpose to go towards a development of the human being based on the rights of the latter (UNESCO, 2005). For Linde and Stock (2011, cited by Gremm et al., 2018), the information society represents, thereby the technical perspective of a society where innovations are based on information and communication technologies (ICT). A knowledge society goes even further by being an information society in which the information content becomes a priority, and knowledge will be available for everyone at any time and any place.