Technopolitics and Sociomaterial Power in International Organisations' Futuring Practices for Digital Transformation of Education

This paper inquires into how international organisations (IOs) have operated global events, which kinds of policy networks and development aid have influenced policy initiatives of IOs’ divisions, and how, in their post-COVID digital transformation of education initiatives. This examination aims at illuminating the historical and technopolitical relations underlying the IOs’ global futuring practices. The IOs’ contemporary policy practices resonate with the history of international development, where the post-war powerful countries and institutions utilised their social and material power to realise the neoliberal globalisation project. What has been shifting in this global power dynamics is the ascendancy of techno-entrepreneurs who take positions in government to drive the digital transformation of education and the economy, leveraging their networks with IOs and the involvement of big tech, including Microsoft and the Gates Foundation. Meanwhile, the presence of Chinese technology companies has also been salient in UNESCO and the World Bank's partnerships and events. The US government has continued to exercise its power as the top donor with voting power at the OECD and the World Bank, whereas China has expanded its global influence through its funding to UNESCO and the World Bank, and through expanded networks in African countries enabled by the partnership activities of these two organisations. What seems to be repeated in IOs’ digital transformation initiatives is the dependence of these countries on international forces in the development of their national education systems in the context of digitalisation. Thus, this paper explores how these disproportionate international and business forces have influenced the sociomaterial futuring practices of international organisations (IOs) through money, networks, and events within the digital transformation of education movement.