THE MATERIALITY OF KNOWLEDGE: THE COLONIAL ROOTS OF THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

The present work aims to draw on the theoretical legacy of postcolonial critique, which includes the assumption of a fundamental continuity between colonial history and our postcolonial world, in order to rethink the current configuration of the relationship between capital and knowledge (usually analysed in terms of “knowledge society”, “knowledge economy”, and so on), in light of and in continuity with the history and structures of colonial capitalism. For this purpose, in the first place, the main neoliberal and critical theories concerning this relationship are discussed with a focus on the histories and temporalities they assume or entail, also including human capital theories and their connections with developmentalism, eugenics, and scientific racism. In the second place, a materialist conception of knowledge, of its relations with human labour and capital, and of its functions within capitalist production and reproduction is proposed in order to re-read its role in the history of capitalism during the long colonial modernity and to analyse the historical construction of Eurocentric modern knowledge. In the third place, the conclusions thus reached are used to “displace” the previously discussed theories, histories, and temporalities through the examination of significant cases from colonial history, mainly but not exclusively taken from early modern New Spain.