This volume examines the evolving role of education in contemporary geopolitical landscapes, where technological innovation, global networks, and national interests redefine its purpose. Moving beyond territorial geopolitics, it explores education as a critical asset in postdigital societies, embedded in techno-nationalist agendas and global power structures. In AI, genomics, nanotechnology, and quantum technologies, education serves dual functions: shaping epistemic authority and underpinning knowledge economies. These developments challenge paradigms of truth, consciousness, and equitable knowledge access. The chapters engage with discourses on digital sovereignty, postdigital privilege, democracy, and resistance, illustrating how education restructures global power relations. Synthesizing perspectives from geopolitics, digital transformation, and postdigital educational development, it underscores understanding education as a contested terrain where global equity, inclusion, and ethical technological governance are negotiated. This book is particularly suited for researchers of postdigital education.
The Geopolitics of Postdigital Educational Development is complemented by Postdigital Education for Development, also edited by Michael A. Peters, Olivera Kamenarac, Ben Green, Petar Jandrić, and Tina Besley.
Michael A. Peters (FRSNZ, FHSNZ, FPESA) is a globally recognized scholar whose interdisciplinary work spans philosophy of education, political economy, and ecological civilization. He holds the distinction of Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, and Research Associate in the Philosophy Program at Waikato University. A prolific author of over 120 books and 500 articles, he has shaped discourse in educational theory, philosophy, and critical policy studies worldwide, served 25 years as Editor-in-Chief of Educational Philosophy and Theory, and founded multiple international journals.
Benjamin J. Green is an Assistant Professor at Teachers College, Beijing Language and Culture University, having previously lectured at Beijing Foreign Studies University and China Foreign Affairs University. He is the author of How China’s System of Higher Education Works (Routledge 2023), co-editor of the Handbook of Ecological Civilization (Springer 2025), as well as over 40 international publications in SSCI and/or Scopus-indexed journals. His work on collective intelligence, higher education governance, internationalization of higher education, US-China relations, and AI-driven educational development highlights an overarching concern for co-evolutionary (human-technology-nature) systemic adaptability in the face of increasingly complex global crises.
Olivera Kamenarac is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Southern Cross University, Australia. Her research intersects the sociology of education, education policy, and feminist poststructuralist and posthumanist theories of subjectivity. With academic experience across Serbia, New Zealand, Ireland, Malta, Norway, and Australia, she investigates how educational structures and discourses (re)shape possibilities for be(com)ing with/through education. Committed to social justice, her scholarship analyses education as a contested space where power, policy, and politics entangle with transformative potential.
Petar Jandrić is Professor and Vice-Dean at the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Croatia. Petar’s research interests are at the postdisciplinary intersections between technologies, pedagogies, and the society, and research methodologies of his choice are inter-, trans-, and antidisciplinarity. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Postdigital Science and Education journal, Postdigital Science and Education book series,and Encyclopedia of Postdigital Science and Education. His recent books include Postdigital Research: Genealogies, Challenges, and Future Perspectives (2023) and Constructing Postdigital Research: Method and Emancipation (2023).
Tina Besley (FRSA, FPESA, FAVP) is Visiting Professor, School of Education, Tsinghua University and was Distinguished Professor, Beijing Normal University (2018-2024). Previously Professor and Associate Dean International, University of Waikato, Tina is past president of Philosophy of Education Society of Australia, and founding president of the Association for Visual Pedagogies. Her research draws on Foucault’s later work on subjectivity, free speech and governmentality, and explores policy, ethics, identities and interculturalism. Tina works closely with Michael A. Peters and many international scholars, publishing over 30 books, and numerous journal articles.
