Enhancing economic competitiveness in the knowledge economy requires policies that align workforce skills with emerging demands. This paper examines the discursive battle over the skills of the future and argues that the idea of the knowledge economy works as a ‘coalition magnet’. Policymakers use the ‘knowledge economy’ flexibly together with ideas about skill needs and social inclusion to assemble political coalitions that support distinct interpretations of the knowledge economy that vary over time and cross-nationally. We conduct a discourse network analysis, examining data from newspapers over the period 2005–2022. We find that in Denmark and Germany, high and general skill needs are a magnet for social inclusion ideas, fostering a discourse focused on a ‘social’ view of the knowledge economy. In contrast, in France and the UK, high and general skill needs are a magnet for ideas related to other skill concerns, particularly concerning mid-skilled workers. These combinations are driven by different actor constellations: private actors in Denmark and the UK, and the state in France and Germany, use the knowledge economy as a coalition magnet. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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