C4D Network

Global community of professionals working in Communication for Development

Advanced Search
  • Home
    • About Us
  • News & Events
    • Newsfeed
    • Events
    • Opportunities
  • Network Community
    • Members
    • Country Chapters
  • Learning
    • C4D Know-How
    • C4D in Action
    • Learning Resources
    • C4D Development Topics
  • Recruitment
  • Support & Services
    • Consultancy
    • Service Providers

Making Informal Settlements ‘Visible’ Through Datafication: A Case Study of Quarry Road West Informal Settlement, Durban, South Africa

October 17, 2019

Authors: Catherine Sutherland, Bahle Mazeka, Sibongile Buthelezi, Duduzile Khumalo and Patrick Martel

Can datafication increase the ‘visibility’ of informal settlements in South Africa, in the context of a national and local state that holds both progressive and repressive approaches towards informal settlements?

This case study explores a datafication process that has been in place for five years in an informal settlement in Durban, which has been established through an inclusionary, participatory data collection and production process. It examines how and when the data moves in the information value chain, and the implications this movement has for achieving rights-based, instrumental, structural and distributive justice. It argues that procedural and rights-based justice can be achieved to a certain extent through the construction of an inclusionary datafication process. However, instrumental, structural and distributive justice is dependent on how the interventionist and developmental state of South Africa engages with the data, and whether it takes it up in a meaningful way, thus enabling it to lead to fundamental shifts in discourses, approaches and practices towards informality.

The results reveal that the ‘governance and knowledge platforms’ that are built through the datafication process are more important and powerful at first, than the actual data itself. However, informal settlers and other data intermediaries, who have learnt how to engage data to secure the ‘right of informal settlers to the city’, have begun to use the data in interesting ways, acting as champions, and re-shaping citizens’ relations with the state. While this does not secure tangible changes in informal settlements, it begins to shift discourses and power relations, which is critical to informal settlement upgrading.

Click here to read more.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Big Data, Big Data Highlights, ICT4D (Information Communication Technologies for Development), Research Papers, Topic Blogs

Site Navigation

Join C4D
Contact Us
Get Involved
Facebook Group
LinkedIn Group

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Social Networks

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Communication for Development Network
Registered address:
Finsbury House, New Street,
Chipping Norton, Oxon, OX7 5LL, UK
E-mail [email protected]
Non-profit Company Number: 7734410

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Copyright © 2022 C4D Network · Website by IndigoBird