The Social Context of Project Proliferation—The Rise of a Project Class

Abstract

This article analyses the rise of a new social formation, the project class which represents a recent complex societal and political change. It is argued that project proliferation along with reforms of the administrative structures, changes in the nature of developmental policies and the increasing importance of cultural and cognitive elements of territorial development are the driving forces behind the emergence of a new class. This article analyses the mediatory position of the new social class in the redistribution of public and particularly private development funds, and in the transfer of materials, ideas, knowledge and power. Special attention is given to the intellectual capital that provides legitimacy for the project class and to the flexible social and economic positioning by which the members of the new class create, use and consume intellectual and material products of the information society in order to be competitive on the markets of the project-based economy. The article apprehends the relationship between the emergence of the project class and the transformation of the local power structure. Finally, it demonstrates the challenges related to new forms of knowledge use associated with the emergence of the new social class.

Keywords:

• Project class
• power
• rural development
• intermediation
• knowledge use
• intellectual property