Data Co-Operatives through Data Sovereignty

Igor Calzada

doi:10.3390/smartcities4030062

Abstract

Against the widespread assumption that data are the oil of the 21st century, this article offers an alternative conceptual framework, interpretation, and pathway around data and smart city nexus to subvert surveillance capitalism in light of emerging and further promising practical cases. This article illustrates an open debate in data governance and the data justice field related to current trends and challenges in smart cities, resulting in a new approach advocated for and recently coined by the UN-Habitat programme ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’. Particularly, this feature article sheds light on two intertwined notions that articulate the technopolitical dimension of the ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: data co-operatives and data sovereignty. Data co-operatives are emerging as a way to share and own data through peer-to-peer (p2p) repositories and data sovereignty is being claimed as a digital right for communities/citizens. Consequently, this feature article aims to open up new research avenues around ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: First, it elucidates how data co-operatives through data sovereignty could be articulated as long as co-developed with communities connected to the long history and analysis of the various forms of co-operatives (technopolitical dimension). Second, it prospectively anticipates the city–regional dimension encompassing data colonialism and data devolution.

Highlights

Data Are Not the Oil of the Twenty-First CenturyThere is a widespread assumption that data are the oil of the twenty-first century [1]
The main contribution of this article is that of opening new research avenues by suggesting an alternative pathway to subvert surveillance capitalism and sensory power in smart cities
This article illustrates an open debate in data governance and the data justice field related to current trends and challenges in smart cities [99]

Summary

Introduction

There is a widespread assumption that data are the oil of the twenty-first century [1]. This phrase is the cliche du jour of the tech-smart city industry, which has turned out to be a viral idea shared by marketers, tech companies, governments, regulators, and mainstream media commentators [2,3,4] This metaphor portrays public data as passive and untapped resources that have value only when they are extracted [5]. Stemming from the counterinterpretation of the metaphor ‘oil equals data’, this article suggests an alternative pathway in light of several emerging and promising practical cases to revert surveillance capitalism in smart cities [8] It illustrates an open debate in data governance and data justice field related to current trends and challenges in smart cities. The article is structured as follows: (i) the Introduction Section presented the rationale and research question; (ii) Section 2 will introduce a discussion around data cooperatives being understood as p2p data-sharing and ownership organisational forms [17]; (iii) Section 3 will describe the main challenges with implementing data sovereignty in a wide range of city–regional contexts that could already claim to have a plethora of digital rights for communities and citizens [18,19]; (iv) Section 4, blends the data co-operatives (second section) and data sovereignty (third section) in relation to the new formulation coined by UN-Habitat in 2018 as ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ by providing a transitional framework to subvert surveillance capitalism; (v) lastly, Section 5 elucidates its main contribution, the novelty of its standpoint, its existing limitations, its inspirational intention, and potential future research avenues to elaborate on the city–regional dimension of the ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: data devolution [20] and data colonialism [21]

Data Co-Operatives

Data Sovereignty

People-Centred Smart Cities

Conclusions