Envisioning knowledge exchange in a gift economy

Abstract Key to a new contract for education is understanding that knowledge is not scarce, it is not a commodity, and it does not belong in a market economy. Instead, knowledge exchange is gift exchange, and education, when not thwarted or constricted, demonstrates its abundance. The abundance of knowledge operates in ways similar to the abundance of nature, as described by the ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer in her essay “The serviceberry: An economy of abundance”. We can therefore draw productive parallels between education and the new agroecology, which recognizes the intertwining nature and importance of the diversity of life and the gifts that come from the synergy of that diversity. Just as monoculture farming gives way to holistic farming, monoculture learning must also give way to a paradigm shift. Helping us envision this shift are arguments made in a court case in the US brought by the Department of Justice against 23 universities, including those in the Ivy League (US v Brown, 1992 and 1993). Through ideas expressed in court in defense of admissions practices, we can see how the cooperation necessary for a new education paradigm might be constructed. This essay invites us to more fully envision this new paradigm by focusing on the key shift that happens when knowledge exchange is understood to be gift exchange.