Intermediaries and the digital transformation of schooling: An introduction

Abstract

In this editorial, we outline origins and evolutions of (studying) intermediaries in the field of education. While intermediaries have played a significant role since the establishment of mass education in the 19th century, it was not until the broader transformation from government to governance from the 1970s onwards that intermediaries became visible – and investigated – as a distinct field of powerful actors. The more recent digital transformation of education can, on the one hand, be situated within these broader evolutions. On the other hand, the rise of digital technologies, data infrastructures and platform has also significantly impacted, and further empowered, the field of intermediaries. With this Special Issue, which consists of five contributions, we aim at a closer disentanglement of these recent transformations. In this editorial, each contribution is briefly discussed individually, before outlining some overall findings of the issue.