Struggle over data assets: Digital rentiership relations revealed in school platform procurement processes

• Schools are nowadays part of the techno-economical logic of platform capitalism, and regularly involved in platform procurement processes by setting up contractual agreements with local and global platform businesses. These processes are however not without tensions or acts of resistance emanating from digital rentiership power relations. In this paper, this will be exemplified by struggles over school data assets during procurement processes, involving schoolteachers, school IT management, as well as parent ‘data hacktivists’ claiming their right to having the right to access school-generated data. Even if research has problematised for example ‘lock-ins’ and ‘enclaves’ generated as part of platform capitalism (e.g. Birch & Cochrane, 2022) and particularly the impact of major big-tech platform corporations controlling economic rents and data assets, how this is played out in practices such as schools remains under explored. By drawing on policy and infrastructural mappings and interview materials based on Swedish schools and education media debate, this paper aims to reveal tensions of the powers of digital rentiership, and the different values and implications at play for the public education sector.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Arbetslivsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Work Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Platform capitalism

ed-tech

procurement

digital rentiership

data asset

school

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)