Paradoxes of cognitive capitalism: approach to academic knowledge in public universities in Colombia

Abstract

Capitalism as a social, cultural, and economic model or system has established that the market is the guiding principle of contemporary societies' decisions. This has had devastating effects on sectors such as education, where paradoxes have arisen, primarily related to the ways in which knowledge generated in universities is produced and circulated. With this in mind, the purpose of this article was to analyze how academic knowledge at public universities in Colombia is a result of cognitive capitalism. To this end, a mixed-method study was developed, with qualitative prevalence and support from documentary sources, statistics, and national regulations. A review of international databases (EBSCO, JSTOR, Scopus, among others) was combined with an analysis of institutional reports and calls from the Ministry of Science (MINC) (2020–2022), which made it possible to contrast the global discourses of cognitive capitalism with local practices of scientific production in Colombia. Among the main conclusions, it was found that the laws of scientometrics that are fulfilled in the production, dissemination, and use of knowledge in the country have determined the annual growth rates of scientific production in Colombia, but also the criticisms of the models for assigning salary points, as well as the measurement models from the institutional framework and the impoverishing roles for some professors and researchers.