The geopolitical arrays of digital transformation in Uganda: Discourse, homogeneity, and territory

This chapter explores Uganda’s first Digital Transformation Roadmap (2023-2028) as a vehicle for a broader discussion on the geopolitical arrays that shape the development and educational agendas of countries in East Africa. Uganda represents a rich context for exploring these geopolitical arrays and their postdigital implications, sitting as it does at the nexus of supranational policy instruments and pressures. It is an emerging economy bound by the influence of non-state actors and their shaping of domestic educational futures. Uganda has largely responded to these policy pressures with significant expenditure of political, cultural, and economic activity, whether that be through meeting the scaled targets of the SDGs, allowing for significant civic participation and political patronage for its refugee population, or the gradual liberalisation of the state in response to the development priorities of international actors. Such a context provides a frame for exploring both the broader geopolitical arrays that inform domestic policy and development, as well as the largely national interpretations of these geopolitical pressures. Such national contexts are significant for postdigital research in interrogating domestic deterritorialisation and the subsequent reterritorialization towards the broader geopolitical arrays that increasingly shape the educational territory of counties in the Global South.