ABSTRACT

Software code, algorithms, data analytics and infrastructures have become inseparable from policy processes and modes of governance. This article introduces ‘digital policy sociology’ as a way of studying the role and influence of digital technologies in education policy. Building on existing ‘policy sociology’ approaches combined with emerging insights rom ‘digital sociology’, digital policy sociology extends the analytical gaze to new technical actors – nonhuman software and hardware, as well as human experts, technology companies, and promotional organizations. As a case study exemplar, the analysis focuses on an emerging domain of data-intensive science and technology with significant implications for education policy in the future. ‘Precision education’ is an emerging combination of psychological, neuroscientific and genetic expertise, with a particular emphasis on using advanced computational technologies to produce ‘intimate data’ about students’ bodies and biological associations with learning. These intimate data have potential to become new sources of biological policy knowledge, raising significant methodological and analytical challenges for policy sociology.

摘要

软件代码、算法、数据分析和基础设施已与政策流程和治理模式密不可分。本文介绍了“数字政策社会学”，作为研究数字技术在教育政策中的作用和影响的一种方式。建立在现有的“政策社会学”方法与“数字社会学”的新兴见解相结合的基础上，数字政策社会学将分析目光扩展到新的技术参与者——非人类软件和硬件，以及人类专家、技术公司和宣传组织。作为案例研究范例，该分析侧重于数据密集型科学和技术的新兴领域，对未来的教育政策具有重大影响。“精准教育”是心理学、神经科学和遗传学专业知识的新兴组合，特别强调使用先进的计算技术来生成关于学生身体和生物与学习关联的“亲密数据”。这些私密数据有可能成为生物政策知识的新来源，为政策社会学带来重大的方法论和分析挑战。