Datanalysing the uninsured: The coloniality of inclusive insurance platforms

Abstract

This article explores the rise of digital platforms for insurance coverage related to the financial inclusion agenda in developing and emerging economies. The current literature focuses mostly on the emergence and implications of Superplatforms based in core capitalist economies. Combining insights from studies on platform capitalism with post/decolonial scholarship in international political economy, we argue that the rise of inclusive insurance supported by platforms relies on three dimensions of what we term datanalysing: (a) an interoperable and safe digital infrastructure legitimized by international standards; (b) the collection of racially hierarchized data; and (c) the appropriation of data by objectifying the targeted individuals. As datanalysing turns populations from the Global South into profitable resources from which extracting financial value, it sustains colonial practices censing and classifying subjugated populations. We illustrate our argument with the case of motor insurance coverage. Our analysis offers a wider empirical understanding of the global expansion of platform capitalism to previously unmarketable populations. We suggest that research should place greater emphasis on socio-historical dimensions to highlight the inconsistent and exploitative character of the inclusive insurance agenda.