LEVERAGING OR EXPLOITING? BREAKING THROUGH DATA COLONIALISM AND ETHNOCENTRISM WHEN BUILDING A DIVERSITY-AWARE SOCIAL PLATFORM.

Abstract

The extractive logic of data-driven technology and knowledge production has raised serious concerns. While this discourse initially focused on the impact on Western societies, attention is increasingly turning to the consequences for countries and communities in the (Global) Souths. Criticism has mainly focused on the activities of the private sector. In this paper, however, we argue that publicly funded knowledge and technology production projects must also be examined through the lens of this critique. A research project designing and prototyping a diversity-aware social platform with pilot sites in China, Denmark, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, and Paraguay is taken as a use case to ask the question: What do we need to do to meet diverse needs and develop innovative knowledge and products that benefit partners from the South and North alike? Our goal is to identify key efforts that are required to break the prevailing cycle of data colonialism and ethnocentric design. We present data from four different pilot sites and reflect on the original concept, as well as progress and results achieved to date. We then compare the experiences and draw five lessons that we believe will help future projects foster more equitable collaboration and achieve outcomes that benefit diverse local communities.