This book develops the notion of "knowledge cultures" as a basis for understanding the possibilities of education and development in the age of knowledge Capitalism. "Knowledge cultures" point to the significance of cultural preconditions in the new production of knowledge and how they are based on shared practices, embodying culturally preferred ways of doing things often developed over many generations. These practices also point to the culture-boundedness of symbolic functions and also the way in which cultures have different repertoires of representational and non-representational forms of knowing. The book discusses knowledge cultures in relation to claims for the new economy and the "communicative turn", as well as cultural economy and the politics of postmodernity. It focuses on national policy constructions of the knowledge economy, "fast knowledge" and the role of the so-called "new pedagogy" and social learning under these conditions. The book proceeds to examine the notion of practices as an unanalyzable and self-evident given in educational literature. Yet the presuppositions of the term are not analyzed or clarified and rarely is it acknowledged that theories of practice not only shape what we accept as 'true' and 'normal' but also implicitly constitute a set of politico-ethical choices. Such a view is necessary to understand knowledge networks, as well as their relation to development and educational policy futures. This book contains the following chapters: (1) Cultural Knowledge Economy: Education, the New Economy and the Communicative Turn; (2) The Politics of Postmodernity and the Promise of Education; (3) Education Policy in the Age of Knowledge Capitalism; (4) National Policy Constructions of the "Knowledge Economy": Towards a Critique; (5) Classical Political Economy and the Role of Universities in the New Knowledge Economy; (6) The Theatre of Fast Knowledge: Performative Epistemologies; (7) The New Pedagogy and Social Learning: Current Pedagogic Research and Practice; (8) Theorising Educational Practices: The Politico-Ethical Choices; (9) Knowledge Networks, Innovation and Development: Education After Modernization; and (10) Educational Policy Futures.