Datafication, Power and Control in Development: A Historical Perspective on the Perils and Longevity of Data

Abstract

The collection, processing, storage and circulation of data are fundamental element of contemporary societies. While the positivistic literature on ‘data revolution’ finds it essential for improving development delivery, critical data studies stress the threats of datafication. In this article, we demonstrate that datafication has been happening continuously through history, driven by political and economic pressures. We use historical examples to show how resource and personal data were extracted, accumulated and commodified by colonial empires, national governments and trade organizations, and argue that similar extractive processes are a present-day threat in the Global South. We argue that the decoupling of earlier and current datafication processes obscures the underlying, complex power dynamics of datafication. Our historical perspective shows how, once aggregated, data may become imperishable and can be appropriated for problematic purposes in the long run by both public and private entities. Using historical case studies, we challenge the current regulatory approaches that view data as a commodity and frame it instead as a mobile, non-perishable, yet ideally inalienable right of people.

Humanitarian ignorance: towards a new paradigm of non‐knowledge in digital humanitarianism

“…International organisations and local NGOs increasingly rely on or work with private corporations to procure data that can serve as a proxy for traditional household surveys (Taylor and Broeders, 2015), as one example. While Cieslik and Margócsy (2022, p. 5) point out that ‘the strong belief that data is knowledge and that knowledge is progress unites the public and private sector’, the interest behind the collection of data may differ from sector to sector. The production of figures and numbers has become foundational in fundraising and in the distribution and deployment of staff and resources in crises.…”

“…As data becomes a ‘source of revenue, knowledge, and power for Western companies’ (Cieslik and Margócsy, 2022, p. 5), traditional collectors of information and data, whether states or humanitarian actors themselves, are replaced by a more ‘distributed landscape of governance’ (Taylor and Broeders, 2015). In these novel landscapes, degrees of power flow by means of data accumulation, and while more data can respond to perceptions of risk and uncertainty, it increases at the same time the potentialities for strategic and rational ignorance.…”

Innovation in Data Storage Technologies: From Cloud Computing to Edge Computing

“…The introduction of the vacuum-column magnetic-tape transport in 1953 and the movable-head disk drive in 1957 marked the beginning of a new era in data storage, laying the foundation for modern computing systems. The evolution of data storage is not just a technological story but also one of power and control, as Cieslik and Margócsy (2022) argue. The historical progression of data storage reflects broader socio-political dynamics, where data has been a tool for governance and commerce.…”

Digital governance in rural Chengdu, China: Its potential for social-ecological resilience

“…Digital information and communication technology (ICT) is attracting worldwide attention for its potential to support sustainable management of ecosystem services and common pool resources in the face of increasing mismatches between the relative scales and locations of management, of the ecological processes being managed, and of the populations most affected by degradation of those processes-even as ICT itself has contributed to that degradation (Cumming et al, 2006;Mol, 2009;Cox and Sseguya, 2015;Peng et al, 2017;Cieslik and Margócsy, 2022). For ICT to realize its beneficial potential, and correct its own degrading impacts, it must be transformed into a tool to implement Ostrom's principles for sustainable governance of social-ecological systems-particularly by serving as an open communication channel for improved peer-to-peer information flows and feedback loops in decision-making processes, and by enabling participatory co-production, co-collection, co-analysis and co-ownership of data among stakeholders (Ostrom, 2009;Webster and Leleux, 2018;Kostoska and Kocarev, 2019;Cieslik et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021).…”