IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/titdxx/v26y2020i2p214-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Data inequalities and why they matter for development

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Cinnamon

Abstract

The ‘data revolution’ marks a time of growing interest and investment in data – big, small, or otherwise. Critical attention to data is also proliferating, exposing the diverse ways that data produces inequality of opportunity and harm in society. This paper draws the nascent field of critical data studies into conversation with emerging narratives in data-for-development (D4D) to advance the conceptualization of data inequalities, explaining how they both align with and diverge from core tropes of digital inequalities research – and why this matters for development. The paper examines the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to three ‘data divides’ – access to data, representation of the world as data, and control over data flows – through examples of digital identity systems and national data infrastructures, user-generated data, and personal behavioral data produced through corporate platforms. This understanding provides a basis for future research, practice, and policymaking on data-related (in)equalities in development contexts and beyond.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Cinnamon, 2020. "Data inequalities and why they matter for development," Information Technology for Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 214-233, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:26:y:2020:i:2:p:214-233
    DOI: 10.1080/02681102.2019.1650244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02681102.2019.1650244
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02681102.2019.1650244?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lythreatis, Sophie & Singh, Sanjay Kumar & El-Kassar, Abdul-Nasser, 2022. "The digital divide: A review and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Viera Magalhães, João & Couldry, Nick, 2021. "Giving by taking away: big tech, data colonialism and the reconfiguration of social good," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107516, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Lu Tan & Jingsong Pei, 2023. "Open Government Data and the Urban–Rural Income Divide in China: An Exploration of Data Inequalities and Their Consequences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-18, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:26:y:2020:i:2:p:214-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/titd20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.