(Big) Data and the North-in-South: Australia’s Informational Imperialism and Digital Colonialism

Forthcoming in Television and New Media special issue on 'Big Data from the South', edited by Stefania Milan and Emiliano Trere

29 Pages Posted: 6 Oct 2018

See all articles by Monique Mann

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law

Angela Daly

University of Dundee; University of Oxford - Magdalen College; Tilburg University - Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT)

Date Written: September 13, 2018

Abstract

Australia is a country firmly part of the Global North, yet geographically located in the Global South. This North-in-South divide plays out internally within Australia given its status as a British settler-colonial society which continues to perpetrate imperial and colonial practices vis-à-vis the Indigenous peoples and vis-à-vis Australia’s neighbouring countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This article draws on discuss five seminal examples forming a case study on Australia to examine big data practices through the lens of Southern Theory from a criminological perspective. We argue that Australia’s use of big data cements its status as a North-in-South environment where colonial domination is continued via modern technologies to effect enduring informational imperialism and digital colonialism. We conclude by outlining some promising ways in which data practices can be decolonised through Indigenous Data Sovereignty but acknowledge these are not currently the norm so Australia's digital colonialism/coloniality endures for the time being.

Keywords: Big Data, Data Colonialism, Southern Theory, Australia, Southern Criminology

JEL Classification: Z18

Suggested Citation

Mann, Monique and Daly, Angela, (Big) Data and the North-in-South: Australia’s Informational Imperialism and Digital Colonialism (September 13, 2018). Forthcoming in Television and New Media special issue on 'Big Data from the South', edited by Stefania Milan and Emiliano Trere, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3248936

Monique Mann

Queensland University of Technology - Faculty of Law ( email )

Level 4, C Block Gardens Point
2 George St
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Australia

Angela Daly (Contact Author)

University of Dundee ( email )

Dundee, Scotland DD1 4HN
United Kingdom

University of Oxford - Magdalen College ( email )

Magdalen College
Oxford, OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Tilburg University - Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) ( email )

P.O.Box 90153
Prof. Cobbenhagenlaan 221
Tilburg, 5037
Netherlands

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