The globalized rhetoric surrounding digital transformation often translates into presumptions of universalization within the field of digital history, which is then discussed in a generic sense, as if it were established on common ground. This correlates with history itself, which developed as a modern discipline in the nineteenth century under the pretense of the universalization of time and historical methods. One should notice, however, that the conditions in which forms of knowledge develop depend on multiple factors of a cultural, political, and economic nature, as has been well debated by multiple facets of anti-colonial thought, for example. When dealing with a field such as digital history, which has developed so closely attached to the need for digital infrastructure, computational skills, and innovation, one should notice that inequality plays a major role in preventing ubiquity on a global scale.
„Ian Kisil Marino: Digital History from the Margins? Latin American Perspectives on an Emerging Field“ weiterlesenAshley Sanders: Redressing Colonial Knowledge Systems through Restorative Data Justice
While “data” is often understood today in computational terms, as information coded and organized for interpretation with digital tools and algorithms, the term has a long history dating back to at least the seventeenth century. In its earliest uses, data was defined as a “given” and a basis for decision-making—and thus power. A study of colonial knowledge systems offers numerous examples of the link between power and data regimes. Revealing the integral role of data in the building and maintenance of empires, this talk takes up several methodological questions: How do we handle colonial data, both data generated by colonial administrations and data we recreate from fragmentary sources to address the absences in the historical record born from conquest? And how do we ensure that our own research does not replicate imperial extractive colonial data practices?
„Ashley Sanders: Redressing Colonial Knowledge Systems through Restorative Data Justice“ weiterlesen