Making markets for low-cost schooling: the devices and investments behind Bridge International Academies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the market-making devices behind Bridge International Academies: a for-profit education company aiming to school millions of nursery and primary aged-students living on less than $2 per day. A wide variety of devices are utilised by Bridge International Academies to construct mass markets for low-cost schooling, including GPS devices that map low-income communities, smartphones that automate administrative functions, and computer devices that perform the duties of a teacher. Moreover, this paper also outlines the network of investors supplying the company with the necessary capital to put market devices into practice and hence, build markets for low-cost schooling.

KEYWORDS:

• Market devices
• education markets
• low-cost schooling
• Bridge
• International Academies
• assemblages
• economic sociology

Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Susan Robertson, Janja Komljenovic, and Roger Dale for their enduring support and guidance over the course of preparing and writing this paper. I would also like to extend appreciation to my colleagues who participated in the two-part panel on Global education market-making and trading at CIES 2016 from which the papers for this Special Issue emerged. The intellectual inspiration you have all provided is supremely valued. Comments from two anonymous reviewers of this paper are also gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The US’ Department of Defense created GPS – a global navigation satellite system – which now provides military, civil, and commercial users around the world with satellite imagery and mapping capabilities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.