Interrogating data justice on Hyderabad’s urban frontier

Information politics and the internal differentiation of vulnerable communities

Bibliographic Data

ID19038633
AuthorsLoraine Kennedy (0000-0002-9197-207X, CNRS-CEIAS, EHESS, Paris, corresponding author), Ashima Sood (0000-0003-1036-7589, Anant National University, Ahmedabad), Debdatta Chakraborty (0009-0000-6165-7741, Independent Scholar, Hyderabad), Ram Mohan Chitta (0000-0001-6459-1346, Independent Scholar, Hyderabad)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue9
Pages1273-1292
Publication date2020-12-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInformation Communication & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-118X • E-ISSN: 1468-4462
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369118x.2020.1851388
OpenAlexW3114375797
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited32

How does data visibility affect vulnerable communities that face uncertainty over land tenure? Can data justice be realised in settings of acute resource injustice? These are the overarching questions that our case study interrogates by opening up the black box of the community in the volatile and fast-transforming peri-urban fringe of Hyderabad, India. We examine the unfolding of data and information processes through the lens of enumeration and community mapping exercises conducted in a low-income neighbourhood. We argue that the realisation of data justice is mediated by ‘information politics’, i.e., the ways in which informational resources, as well as the risks and rewards associated with them, are distributed across individual actors and identity groups within the community. The democratising potential of emerging digital technologies is severely constrained by structural inequities across gender, caste, class, and even linguistic lines. Our case study underlines the importance of such a structural understanding of data justice and also suggests directions for embedding justice in data processes. Our findings reveal an arena of stark informational disparities between vulnerable, indigent populations and the increasingly sophisticated digital data apparatuses used to encode them. Efforts to promote data justice must take explicit cognisance of these disparities and fragmentation and recognise the internal structural differentiation of vulnerable communities. We argue for an explicit mapping of the information flows and associated information politics that characterise such settings

Caste · Economic Justice · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Law · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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