ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 contextualizes this work, defines key terms (e.g., “EdTech”), summarizes the argument and chapters and rationalizes its focus on the EdTech industries. This chapter also introduces the political economy of communication approach and establishes a political economy of EdTech that is holistic, historical, linked with moral philosophy and praxis-oriented. It also explains the “critical” contribution the political economy of EdTech makes as compared to and distinct from administrative, deterministic and instrumentalist approaches to EdTech. We wager that to understand the real social forces and relations driving the transformation of higher education with EdTech, we need to begin with knowledge of society, not technology per se. To this end, the chapter advances a political economy of EdTech that probes the economic and political structures, social power relations, organizations and interests that shape EdTech’s development, diffusion and adoption.
