Technology policy as a stealth agent of global change

Abstract

Drawing upon a year of ethnographic research with the Los Angeles public school system, this article follows the translation and negotiation of several key technology grants and their policies. It argues that as a global trend, myths of technological neutrality and transparency merely cloud the panoply of negotiations taking place in public organizations, subsequently removing those decisions from public participation or scrutiny. Technology policy thereby becomes a stealth agent of global change, which, ironically in this case, reinforces Fordist rigidities in technological realms that are typically viewed as supporting post‐Fordist flexibilities. Only by engaging with technology policy in all its complexity, the article concludes, can public institutions hope to achieve democratic participation and outcomes.