The relationship between education, the economy and society is the subject of considerable media discussion, policy deliberations, academic writing and public angst. In South Africa and elsewhere there exists a resurgent and unquestioning acceptance of simplistic claims related to the link between education and economic growth and that more and better education and training will automatically lead to employment. The contributors to this book systematically challenge these assumptions and set out the basis for an alternative vision in which knowledge and skills are not perceived in purely instrumental terms but as intrinsic and indispensable to the creation of an inclusive and transformed society. We argue that the value and purpose of education is much broader – linked to a rich tradition of praxis based on social justice and democratic citizenship.

The chapters of this book written by a mix of established and exciting new researchers are carefully selected, and while covering a diverse terrain, they cohere well by including more discursive, theoretical pieces and detailed empirical research. The contributors question the dominant discourse around education which assumes that socioeconomic development is contingent on the banal ‘productive’ or entrepreneurial role of education. They also address the entire nexus of issues in which education is one strand in the tapestry of economic, political, class, racial, gendered and ecological policies and practices in the context of social forces that constitute everyday lives.

Professor Pam Christie, director of the School of Education at the University of Cape Town welcomes this book as a return to, and extension of, a critical tradition that is so necessary in South African education. She states that, ‘… the authors point to the poor track record of free markets in reducing unemployment, and the limitations of neoliberal orthodoxies in addressing poverty and inequality.’ For Christie ‘the book challenges readers to reflect more creatively on education, skills and the economy, and to reframe the value of education more broadly to include its social, cultural and political purposes.’

Similarly, the Dean of Education at the University of Fort Hare, Professor George Moyo writes: