What is Knowledge Based Economy Discourse

Although many critical scholars in the West have acknowledged the unequal distribution of power across the globe, few have attempted to undertake systematic research on how countries in the periphery are drawn into the neo liberal project of globalization under the discourse of Knowledge Based Economy (KBE) and how this process effects policy formation regarding ICTs. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze Knowledge Based Economy (KBE)/Information Society (IS) discourses in constructing global dependency relations on ICT policies within the context of Turkey. These dependency relations have many aspects including a discursive one. In this study, the focus will be on policy documents to better understand the overall discourse, social processes and structures which have been reflected in, represented and constructed or constituted by this discourse to theorize and transform. Four documents were selected as representing the hegemonic center, one produced by the World Bank and three policy documents from the European Union. Additionally three documents which represent the Turkey context were selected. Upon examination two documents were found to be counter hegemonic and the other supported the hegemonic visions of the World Bank and the European Union. Turkey has signed a number of stand-by agreements with the IMF/World Bank due to economic crisis over the last twenty years and Turkey’s bid to become a full member of the European Union necessitated alignment of legal infrastructure and domestic policies. The chapter also explains how the dependent discourses reversed ICT and network policy formation based on local capabilities and local needs.