‘The tears don’t give you funding’: data neocolonialism in development in the Global South

Abstract

This paper examines the knowledge politics and cultures that shape data relations between international aid organisations and Global South public institutions, taking African libraries as an example. International organisations increasingly rely on data from the Global South, purportedly as a resource for development, which has raised valid concerns about the emergence of new practices of data colonialism. One proposed solution is to expand the capacity of Global South institutions to control their own data processes, so they can likewise control the politico-economic relationships that draw on their data. A pan-African library organisation representing 34 countries is exploring this possibility though a multiyear research project to increase library capacity to use data to partner with development aid organisations. However, this work revealed that data colonialism precedes practices of value extraction. In focus groups, a survey of library systems and interviews with aid organisations, aspects of the data cycle are epistemically framed by aid organisations to undercut Global South control, and subtle neocolonial mechanisms encourage libraries to shape their own data cultures according to desires of aid organisations. This underscores the need to expand data neocolonialism as a frame for confronting epistemic injustice by highlighting Western rationalities embedded in data relations.

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