Page 45 - Education in a Digital World

32 Theoretical Approaches

therefore raises questions of the activities and agendas of classes not obviously
involved in educational technology, such as “financiers, industrialists, technocrats
and politicians” (Stiegler 2010, p.18). In the case of educational technology, the
range and nature of these latter interests are certainly varied – from IT-related
multinational corporations such as Microsoft and Cisco, through to large-scale
general conglomerates such as Tata and ICICI with multiple economic interests
throughout the production and service sectors. Echoing a theme that is implicit
within the comparative education approach, political economy also highlights the ever-
increasing role of intergovernmental organisations and supranational organisations such
as the World Bank, the OECD and the United Nations. Underpinning such analyses
are the linkages and power relations between all of these interests – not least the
restructuring and reconfiguration of these private interests and public authorities
into ‘new institutions’ such as global networks of government officials, private codes
of conduct for corporations and action-orientated partnerships of NGOs, governments,
corporations and other actors (Hale and Held 2011). As we shall see in subsequent
chapters of this book, digital technology is now a key site of contemporary educational
provision and practice where all these developments take place.
Aside from highlighting the complex of interests at play, a key strength of the
political economy approach is its emphasis on history. Unlike many other forms of
educational technology scholarship, the political economy approach certainly does
not encourage a ‘snap-shot’ account of societal phenomena. Instead, as Robin
Mansell (2004, p.98) describes, political economy engenders “an interest in the
analysis of the specific historical circumstances under which new media and com-
munications products and services are produced under capitalism, and with the
influence of these circumstances over their consumption”. With regards to educa-
tional technology, then, the political economy approach reminds us of the value of
a concern for history in the face of apparently rapid technological development.
Indeed, political economy encourages analysts to take a ‘long view’ of societal
change – paying close attention to the relationship between history and current
forms of social structure and reproduction. A key concern of contemporary political
economy is the ability to gauge the extent to which we are in midst of distinct
societal transformations and rearrangements of social structures and processes. Of
course, in many instances, what appears to be profound societal change is often a
subtle “deepening and extension of fundamental tendencies at work since the earliest
days of capitalism” (Mosco 2009, p.27). In this sense, the political economy
approach encourages examination of the continuities and the discontinuities
between old and new forms of technology use in education. All these issues will be
of key interest throughout the remainder of this book.

The Benefits of the Post-colonialist Approach

A third theoretical tradition that can add to our understanding of the complex issues
that surround education, technology and globalisation is that of post-colonialism.