Power Inequities in ICT
Observations from an African Place

dr ing Gertjan van Stam
Masvingo, Zimbabwe

WebSci'20 Workshop on Digital (In)Equality,Digital Inclusion, Digital Humanism
7 July 2020

Short introduction• Gertjan van Stam (PhD-culture, MTech-ICT, BSc-Telecoms engineer)• Living and working in sub Sahara Africa since 1987, full time since 2000
• Research focus on the intersection of technology and culture• Community deposits from African viewpoints @http://www.vanstam.net/gertjan-van-stam• Presentation to give glimpses to context and content of the paper• Invitation to read and contemplate the paper• might be an uneasy read, as reported by those who did during its writing• uneasy to write, I can say

Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Method• Reflexive paper, taking years to mature and might never finish• Attending > 50 conference• Observations from Africa, with > 180 academic deposits• Depending on ‘communal grace’ for persons willing to disclose• Took lots of ‘unlearning’ and discomforting experiences, over 20 years• to be able to access and understand other ways of knowing• to withstand respect for, and use of, undeserved privileges• Possibly obscured when submersed in academic environments• explicit and implicit exceptionalism, wherever one goes• institutionalised powers in line with cultural and philosophical eurocentrism

Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Enshrined Injustices hit the mainstream (1/2)
Since writing the paper, social movements heated up• Complex issues• Black Lives Matter focus on institutional racism• Climate Movement focus on civil rights• National scrutiny of colonial history and questioning of cultural practices, e.g.
• “Zwarte Piet” (blackface) in the Netherlands• King Leopold II in Belgium• Cecil Rhodes in United Kingdom• Sustained struggle for social, historical, political and economic justices• Publications in various African fora call for epistemic justice• Students in (South) Africa demand decolonisation of learning
Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Enshrined Injustices hit the mainstream (2/2)• An overarching issue: the demand to ‘Be Seen’• Clouded by remnants of slavery, genocides, and dispossessions• Subalternisation by oriental, imperial and colonial action (the Terrible Three)• Institutional racism and enshrined racist systems• Matters of injustice in ICT development• Ubiquitous computing shown to align with colonial practices• Western academia has track record of expropriating ideas from the South• Leaders with power (even when well-intentioned) exhibit attitudes thatgoverned relationships between Africa and the rest of the world for centuries• Result: hesitance to disclose knowing in the South from the SouthPower inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Glimpse: on Western values in PhD defense“… by ‘Western’ academic values …”

Glimpse: on researchers in rural Zambia“… I have seen it …”

Glimpse: online conference in Africa (May 2020)• WhatsApp conversation ‘in the background’, after the first half hourPower inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Glimpse: online conference in Africa (May 2020)• WhatsApp conversation ‘in the background’, after a presentation

Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Foreign powers, mentioned in paper
At conferences and elsewhere• Power to categories• Power to fund
• Power to travel• Power to demand entitlements• Power to speak first• Power to set the agenda• Power to survey• Power to make visible• Power to represent• Power to apprehend and build• Power to socially control

﻿”Some [foreigners] are quite conscious ﻿of their privileges and actively avoid using their power, others
wield a selection of them; there is also a limited – but quite visible – group that actively use them,whether consciously or not.”Effect, using Burawoy’s power categories
Power
Domination

Explanation
Effect of prolonged andsurreptitious power
struggles

ExampleRhetoric of the struggles
between centres andperipheries

Silencing

Ideology in the interestof dominant elites

Orations by persons from Restricting or
non-local authorities
refraining fromspeaking

Objectification

Assessment informed by Enforcing norms inoriental/external, natural situations where thereand social categorising
are dynamic andintegrative
epistemologies

Using long-term, oralmeans of datacollection

Normalisation

Reducing the world tocategories

Using transdisciplinary
approaches

Judging activities using
extraneous
categorisations

Mediation
Being inert

Effect, using Appiah’s identity categories
Power baseDescription

ExampleMediation

Belief system

Essentialistic views of thebenefits of ICTs

Body-of-knowledge framed byexperience and beliefs valorisedin Euramerica

Orthopraxis(acting right)

Sovereignty

Institutions, procedures andprecepts that govern
sovereignty

Echo chambers of normativeknowledge at international
conferences

Value epistemologies

ColourSegregation based on
observable distinctions

Race and location-affiliatednegation and affirmation,
dominance and resistance

ConversationsClass

Created social hierarchies
Orientalistic generalities aboutsustaining in-groups and out- them and us enmeshed in socialgroupsfabricIntersectionality

CultureCommunity building to live
life with others

Respect

Exchange, adoption andassimilation of practices

Assessment using interrogative questions
Interrogation

PowerWhy

Agenda setting, front Fits Eurocentric agendas that yield benefits for the alreadyseat, speak firstpowerful

WhereTravel

Priorities actions where powerful can travel; action where
the powerful decide ‘a certain lack’ should be alleviatedWhat

Categorisation,
surveying, funding

What fits a universalised scheme gets done, what does not ismade invisible; where money flows, things get done

WhenFunding, agenda
setting
Make visible,
represent
Social control, makevisible
Build

Activities are set by funding patterns, fitting foreign
conceptualised agendas
Those recognised as suppliers of information and data forforeign experts
In line with Eurocentric valorised methods

WhoHow

With what

Aim

Using methods and activities that can be controlled and done
outside of Africa

Issues, mentioned in paper• The lopsided accrual of benefits• Witnessed self-denial and stigma• Omnipresence of coloniality• Unaligned context projections• Countering disempowering andapprehended powers• Issues of ethical conflictmediation

Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Quote: “Why did I come here? I have seen norecognition of the works by non-Westernancestors. I have seen Western professors
joggling for access to areas where they werenot born nor do live. I have seen professors
using the event to jostle for position amongthemselves. I have seen disrespect for nonWestern contributions. In the meantime,
contributions from Southerners seem to speakto Eurocentric audiences only, not to thecontext where I am living in. I have found little
to bring home to justify the investment of mycommunity to bring me here, unfortunately.”(International ICT conference with Southernfocus, participant from East Asia, 2019)

Conclusion• ICT developments appear mostly framed in a system that promotes
and protects Eurocentric power by denying, and at best bracketing,the abilities of Africans to think through, reason about, and solve
problems• It appears that non-Western ICT professionals have to justify theirexistence, even during expressions in their own environment

Power inequities, observation from an African place, WebSci’20, Gertjan van Stam, 7 July 2020

Tatenda, Siyabonga(Thank you)

dr ing Gertjan van Stam
Masvingo, Zimbabwe
WebSci'20 Workshop on Digital (In)Equality, Digital Inclusion, Digital Humanism
7 July 2020