An Applied Data Justice Framework: Analysing Datafication and Marginalised Communities in Cities of the Global South

Development Informatics Working Paper no. 74 (2018); ISBN: 978-1-905469-88-8

27 Pages Posted: 26 Jul 2019

See all articles by Richard Heeks

Richard Heeks

The University of Manchester

Satyarupa Swain

Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group

Date Written: 2018

Abstract

Rapid recent growth in the role of data within international development has meant analysis of this phenomenon has been lagging; particularly, analysis of broader impacts of real-world initiatives. Addressing this gap through a focus on data’s increasing presence in urban development, this paper makes two contributions. First – drawing from the emerging literature on “data justice” – it presents an explicit, systematic and comprehensive new framework that can be used for analysis of datafication. Second, it applies the framework to four initiatives in cities of the global South that capture and visualise new data about marginalised communities: residents living in slums and other informal settlements. Analysing across procedural, rights, instrumental and structural dimensions, it finds these initiatives deliver real incremental gains for their target communities. But it is external actors and wealthier communities that gain more; thus increasing relative inequality.

Suggested Citation

Heeks, Richard and Swain, Satyarupa, An Applied Data Justice Framework: Analysing Datafication and Marginalised Communities in Cities of the Global South (2018). Development Informatics Working Paper no. 74 (2018); ISBN: 978-1-905469-88-8 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3425885 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3425885

Richard Heeks (Contact Author)

The University of Manchester ( email )

Oxford Road
Manchester, N/A M13 9PL
United Kingdom

Satyarupa Swain

Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group ( email )

Chennai
India

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
95
Abstract Views
525
Rank
495,965
PlumX Metrics