Making Informal Settlements ‘Visible’ Through Datafication: A Case Study of Quarry Road West Informal Settlement, Durban, South Africa

Sutherland, Catherine; Mazeka, Bahle; Buthelezi, Sibongile; Khumalo, Duduzile; Martel, Patrick

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3460252

Cited by 8 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Knowledge and information, and the way it flows and where it flows to, is critical in all projects. Information is the currency of exchange, however, the movement of this knowledge through the data information chain to policy makers, will determine the extent of transformative change (Sutherland et al, 2019b;Ziervogel, et al, 2021). The site of learning and its openness determines whose knowledge matters most in shaping river rehabilitation outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior to 2019, the project was funded through international and national research programmes led by UKZN researchers 2 and Durban's Research Action Partnership (DRAP), which includes municipal funding. The PCRP has evolved into an innovative governance platform that supports a wide range of local government-led and community-based initiatives to support the resilience and sustainability of the Palmiet Catchment (Sutherland et al, 2019a(Sutherland et al, , 2019b. The PCRP has shown its resilience as a governance platform by remaining functional since 2014, attracting new funding and projects over time.…”

Section: Palmiet Catchment Rehabilitation Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tacit and experiential community-based knowledge is moved through the networks of the PCRP's governance arena, using co-engagement, presentations in meetings, social learning, dialogue, and publications to inform policy makers within the municipality. This approach has been instrumental in building state-citizen relationships, with university researchers and Palmiet River Watch acting as intermediaries (Sutherland et al, 2019b). This co-produced knowledge has moved into other government programmes, including Durban's Resilience Strategy, iQhaza Lethu Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme, and Durban's Transformative Riverine Management Programme, through the efforts of officials, academics and community members, and has supported local government's understanding of the politics and challenges of rehabilitating a catchment with multiple land uses.…”

Section: A Developmental Social Justice Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, bridges or intermediaries have emerged as essential to achieving the goals of river rehabilitation projects and ensuring that the knowledge produced through capacity building is transferred into spaces where it can begin to make a difference. The presence of, and need for, intermediaries reveals that capacity can be built in individuals, but bridges become important in the transfer of knowledge between communities and local government (Sutherland et al, 2019b).…”

Section: Central and Critical Capacity Building Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governing river rehabilitation projects for transformative capacity development

2021

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River rehabilitation projects are framed as water security interventions in South Africa. They aim to address water quality and water quantity issues, as well as to improve socio-ecological relationships. These projects acknowledge the value of capacity building and social learning in enhancing water security. However, they adopt different governance approaches and hence have different knowledge construction and capacity building outcomes. This paper employs a ‘governmentality’ framework to analyse the capacity development processes within three river rehabilitation projects in Durban, South Africa. The analysis revealed that the three projects with their different governmentalities produced different capacity development modalities which are utilised to sustain ‘the object of intervention’ in each river rehabilitation project. However, despite these differences, information as the currency of action; the context or site of learning; the importance of building state–citizen relationships; and the need for bridges or intermediaries, emerged as common elements which support capacity building and knowledge sharing across all three projects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Palmiet Catchment Rehabilitation Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Developmental Social Justice Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Central and Critical Capacity Building Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Governing river rehabilitation projects for transformative capacity development

2021

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“…As a result, emerging data-driven applications are raising new questions about the conflation of policy formulation with systems design in these exclusive spaces; but also intensifying concerns about the epistemic dependence and policy alienation of public officials (Van den Hoven, 1998;Tummers et al, 2009). For the recipients of public services, especially those with limited ability or resources to influence system-level activities, these changes can have significant implications for their access to and experience of public services, and the potential for administrative justice (Eubanks, 2018;Sutherland et al, 2019;Razzano, 2020;Raso, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital discretion and public administration in Africa: Implications for the use of artificial intelligence

Plantinga¹

2022

Preprint

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The digitalisation of public services is implicated in fundamental changes to how civil servants make decisions and exercise discretion. Most significant has been a shift in responsibility away from ‘street-level bureaucrats’ to ‘system-level bureaucrats’; a technology-savvy community of officials, consultants and private enterprises involved in the design of information technology systems and associated rules. The relatively recent inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven algorithms raises new questions about the conflation of policy formulation and system development activities, but also intensifies concerns about the epistemic dependence and policy alienation of public officials. African public administrations are in an especially vulnerable position with respect to the adoption of AI, and so this chapter seeks to synthesise lessons from previous digital implementations on the continent, and considers the implications for AI use. Four broad considerations emerge from the review of literature: Integrity of recommendations provided by decision-support systems, including how they are influenced by local organisational practices and the reliability of underlying infrastructures; Inclusive decision-making that balances the (assumed) objectivity of data-driven algorithms and the influence of different stakeholder groups; Exception and accountability in how digital and AI platforms are funded, developed, implemented and used; and a Complete understanding of people and events through the integration of traditionally dispersed data sources and systems, and how policy actors seek to mitigate the risks associated with this aspiration.

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