Architectures of assetization: Legacy infrastructures and the configuration of datafication in UK higher education

Abstract

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.