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Development Justice in the Digital Paradigm: Agenda 2030 and Beyond

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Abstract

Digital and data technologies are not merely tools or enablers of development; they are the scaffolds of a new social paradigm. As data flows through a more and more interconnected planet, the capture of network-data spaces by corporate and state interest recasts opportunity structures, heightening inequalities between, and within, countries. The intertwining of technological architectures and socio-economic structures presents key concerns for a transformative vision of development for people and planet alike. This article examines why and how norms and rules at global, national and local levels need to be overhauled towards a development justice that protects and promotes economic justice, redistributive justice, social justice, environmental justice and institutional accountability.

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Notes

  1. 82.5% of the population in the LDCs is offline. See ITU (2017) ‘ICT Facts and Figures 2017’, https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf. Accessed 18 April 2018.

  2. Trends indicate that contrary to the promise of a level playing field for entrepreneurial innovation, the digital economy may be promoting the rise of monopolies. http://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20160917_companies.pdf.

  3. The Internet paradigm of global data flows characterized by pervasive and ubiquitous data mining. https://www.genderit.org/articles/legacy-how-gender-built-way-we-discuss-and-use-technology.

  4. In the words of Sesame Credit’s Technology Director, ‘someone who plays video games for 10 h a day, for example, would be considered an idle person… someone who frequently buys diapers would be considered as probably a parent, who on balance is more likely to have a sense of responsibility.’ https://futurism.com/china-social-credit-system-rate-human-value/.

  5. For example, in PricewaterhouseCooper’s list of Global top 100 companies by market capitalization, the US dominates, with 55 companies; China/HK holds the second position, with 11 companies; and the UK comes third, with five.

  6. China’s policy of combining commercial diplomacy with investments in security and counter-terrorism in Africa is welcomed by regimes whose legitimacy is under question, as this political non-interference is seen as preferable to the pro-democracy approach pushed by the West. http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/How-China-s-grand-entry-Africa-weakened-democracy/688342-4330868-wkint6z/index.html.

  7. A new phase in the industrial revolution pertaining to advancements in technologies of interconnectivity, intelligent automation and machine learning algorithms. In this emerging paradigm, factories are augmented with wireless connectivity and sensors, connected to a system that can visualize the entire production line, control and make decisions on its own.

  8. Digitalization refers to the application of Information and Communication Technologies to restructure existing economic and social processes. As the Internet becomes increasingly socialized, we see the rise of platform companies, who generate revenue by controlling the frameworks of marketplace and social interaction. This phenomenon is described as platformization. The main strategy that digital platforms deploy to consolidate their dominance is to mine behavioural data for producing digital intelligence. Consequently, we witness a proliferation of the collection, aggregation and analysis of data and the permeation of digital intelligence solutions within every aspect of the social world. This is termed datafication.

  9. Singapore is investing in a network of sensors in public housing estates to measure energy draw, waste production and water usage in real time for effective data-based urban planning. https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/03/singapore-smart-nation-smart-city/.

  10. For example, the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil has implemented a new programme that makes it obligatory for transport operators to purchase miles at an auction and then spend them through a digital tracking system. The price per mile is used to influence real time transportation decisions of providers, encompassing everything from the gender of drivers, the flow of traffic to routing decisions—thus paving the way for an equitable and sustainable transportation policy. Similarly, India is embarking on the creation of a state-run online agriculture market portal which can, with widespread adoption by producers and traders, become the data ecosystem for intelligence-based policy development for the farm sector. See http://www.unrisd.org/TechAndHumanRights-Gurumurthy-Chami.

  11. The American Farm Bureau Federation’s data governance principles for farm data illustrate how communities of interest, such as farmers, can arrive at rules for data sharing with agricultural technology providers to protect their individual and collective economic interests. https://www.fb.org/issues/technology/data-privacy/privacy-and-security-principles-for-farm-data The Maori Data Sovereignty Network in New Zealand has adopted a slightly different approach that links data rights of indigenous communities to their cultural autonomy. http://planetmaori.com/Files/Content/2016/Te_Mana_Raraunga_Charter.pdf.

  12. Marc Saxer (2017b) highlights how such ‘socially beneficial efforts’ towards the common good need to be incentivized through measures such as instituting a ‘participant income’ over and above basic social security that all are eligible for. http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/indien/13561.pdf.

  13. In the trade agreements that EU negotiates, the bloc actively seeks to curtail the actions of third countries (non EU countries) in instituting any type of data localization measures, by terming all such attempts as ‘economic protectionism’. But at the same time, as far as the overseas transfer of personal data of its own citizens is concerned, the EU has introduced an ‘adequacy clause’—which means that the EU reserves the right to allow cross-border flows of data of EU citizens only after making sure that the privacy and data protection standards in the recipient country are on par with the GDPR.

  14. The five principles in greater detail: (1) Fairness: preventing discriminatory/unjust impacts when algorithms operate across different demographics; (2) Explainability: ensuring that algorithmic decisions and data driving those decisions can be explained to all stakeholders in non-technical terms; (3) Auditability: facilitating interested third parties to probe, understand, and review the behaviour of the algorithm through disclosure of information that enables monitoring, including through provision of detailed documentation, technically suitable APIs, and permissive terms of use; (4) Responsibility: providing for accessible redress system for adverse individual and social effects of the algorithm; and (5) Accuracy: identifying and clearly logging sources of error and uncertainity throughout an algorithm, and benchmarking performance.

  15. The principle which acknowledges the different capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change, and by extension, the question of environmental sustainability.

  16. For more details, see Draft Legal Instrument on Government-led Surveillance and Privacy Including the Explanatory Memorandum-Annex 7, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Privacy/SR/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx.

  17. https://www.stopcorporateimpunity.org/binding-treaty-un-process/.

  18. For example, in essential public services such as health or the transportation sector. The valuable data about passenger rides and traffic routing that Uber has gathered must be made available to state agencies for city planning and cannot be allowed to remain ‘locked up’. The municipality of Curitiba in Brazil has enacted legislation that requires platform companies such as Uber to share trip-related information with municipal authorities, except routing information, which may compromise user anonymity. See http://www.unrisd.org/TechAndHumanRights-Gurumurthy-Chami.

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  1. IT for Change, Bengaluru, India

    Anita Gurumurthy & Nandini Chami

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  1. Anita Gurumurthy
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  2. Nandini Chami
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Correspondence to Anita Gurumurthy.

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Gurumurthy, A., Chami, N. Development Justice in the Digital Paradigm: Agenda 2030 and Beyond. Development 62, 19–28 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-019-00203-6

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