ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

With knowledge society at the top of public agendas, universities are increasingly becoming key institutions for economic growth and social development. The capitalist accumulation-oriented valorization of knowledge politically implies an artificial imposition of assessment and control processes involving the skills, competences, and knowledge of our societies. National governments keep a strategic power regarding systemic organization of collective intelligence, both protecting intellectual property and financing, controlling, and regulating education institutions, universities, and research centers. We suggest that research on the current global university transformation process should distinguish (1) the finance-centering process and the knowledge valorization instances, (2) the construction and expansion of knowledge-related political subjection mechanisms, and (3) the generation of new international knowledge and labor division forms.