Data Epistemologies, The Coloniality of Power, and Resistance

By Paola Ricaurte. 2019

Data assemblages amplify historical forms of colonization through a complex arrangement of practices, materialities, territories, bodies, and subjectivities. Data-centric epistemologies should be understood as an expression of the coloniality of power manifested as the violent imposition of ways of being, thinking, and feeling that leads to the expulsion of human beings from the social order, denies the existence of alternative worlds and epistemologies, and threatens life on Earth. This article develops a theoretical model to analyze the coloniality of power through data and explores the multiple dimensions of coloniality as a framework for identifying ways of resisting data colonization. Finally, this article suggests possible alternative data epistemologies that are respectful of populations, cultural diversity, and environments.

Subfields: AI Ethics, Fairness & Society, Social Sciences & Humanities

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In AI Ethics, Fairness & Society

1. William S. Isaac
2. Iason Gabriel
3. Shakir Mohamed
4. Marie-Therese Png
5. Nick Couldry
6. Ulises A. Mejias

In Social Sciences & Humanities

1. William S. Isaac
2. Iason Gabriel
3. Shakir Mohamed
4. Marie-Therese Png
5. Nick Couldry
6. Ulises A. Mejias

Citations in the corpus

• Artificial Intelligence, Values, and Alignment (2020, background): “10 For powerful technologies, this quest to encode the true morality could ultimately lead to forms of domination (Ricaurte, 2019).”
• Decolonial AI: Decolonial Theory as Sociotechnical Foresight in Artificial Intelligence (2020, background): “, 2016), new data epistemologies (Milan and Van der Velden, 2016), and environmental sustainability and justice (Røpke, 2001; Ricaurte, 2019; Gallopin, 1992).”
• The decolonial turn in data and technology research: what is at stake and where is it heading? (2021, background): “While freedom is also a concern of Zubo ff ’ s ‘ surveillance capit-alism ’ thesis, her critique addresses the citizens of the USA and Europe, and is abstracted from the long histories of hierarchization between and among peoples that emerged through colonialism (Ricaurte, 2019).”
• Big Data from the South(s): Beyond Data Universalism (2019, unknown): “Ricaurte (2019) develops a framework for analyzing data colonization and examines a case of citizen resistance to data colonialism and gender violence in Mexico.”