Who’s at stake? The role of the stakeholder in UK tech policy

The idea of the ‘stakeholder’ is prevalent in discussions of technology policy. But who counts as a stakeholder, who holds power over who is included, whose voice is left out of technology policy discourses and practices? The aim of this project is to gain a critical understanding of the definition and role of the ‘stakeholder’ in the development of technology policy. What counts as a ‘stake’? Who has a ‘stake’? In this report, we present an analysis of 195 UK tech policy documents, assessed for the usage of the term stakeholder and citational practices. We also present results of a workshop with government, academia and civil society discussing policy practices, and provide recommendations for more representative processes for tech policy.Funded by a Solent University RIKE grant