| Title: |
Architectures of assetization: Legacy infrastructures and the configuration of datafication in UK higher education |
| Authors: |
Birch, Kean; Komljenovic, Janja; Sellar, Sam |
| Contributors: |
Economic and Social Research Council |
| Source: |
New Media & Society ; volume 27, issue 4, page 1868-1887 ; ISSN 1461-4448 1461-7315 |
| Publisher Information: |
SAGE Publications |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Description: |
We outline the concept of ‘architectures of assetization’ as a way to get at the political-economic configuration of datafication in higher education through the layering of educational technology (‘edtech’) onto existing, legacy infrastructures. Edtech provides a useful empirical object of study because of the increasing deployment of new digital technologies in educational organizations; our focus is on higher education institutions (i.e. universities) in the United Kingdom. The empirical analysis is split between a discussion of digital infrastructures and architectures of (data) assetization in higher education; the tensions arising between new digital infrastructures and legacy infrastructures in UK higher education institutions; and the implications of reconfiguring legacy infrastructures for UK universities. We pay particular attention to the creation of new techno-economic objects, especially the transformation of personal and user data into an asset, as datafication transforms higher education in unexpected and not necessarily beneficial ways. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| DOI: |
10.1177/14614448251314400 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251314400; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14614448251314400; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/14614448251314400 |
| Rights: |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ; https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.E5FE665 |
| Database: |
BASE |