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ERIC Number: EJ1393430
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1750-8487
EISSN: EISSN-1750-8495
Investing in Imagined Digital Futures: The Techno-Financial 'Futuring' of Edtech Investors in Higher Education
Williamson, Ben; Komljenovic, Janja
Critical Studies in Education, v64 n3 p234-249 2023
Educational technology is the focus of increasing financial investment. In this article, we examine how edtech investors imagine and invest in the future of higher education through an empirical case study of a UK investing company. Utilising concepts and methods from economic sociology, we analyse how investment companies engage in techno-financial 'futuring' practices. We identify two kinds of futuring practices. First, investors' "imaginary" practices produce qualitative 'fictional expectations' about the future of education, supported by quantitative financial valuation practices that predict the monetary returns on investment available from funding edtech. Second, we analyse the specific investment-supporting "operations" of edtech investors, highlighting how imagined futures of education are funded into existence (or not) as investors select and support edtech products or services. In these ways, imaginaries of the future may be materialised in educational institutions through financial investments in specific edtech products. We particularly trace how investment imaginaries and operations shift from edtech markets as selling commodities to edtech industry controlling digital products and resources as assets. Therefore, the two identified complementary futuring practices function as processes of 'assetisation', aimed at turning educational services and resources into digital assets with calculable future value for edtech investors.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A