InfoCitizen has investigated how data and statistics shape how people are seen, counted, and recognized as citizens. We combine ethnography, history, and digital humanities to study official infrastructures and grassroots initiatives across Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Kenya, and Tanzania.
A key focus has been the politics of national censuses. In Brazil, we examined how the 2020 census became a contested arena where the very definition of “the people” was at stake through algorithms’ interaction with enumerators’ work. In Portugal, we examined the absence of ethnocultural categories in statistics, situating this silence within European debates on equality data and its historical roots.
The project also documented how communities mobilize data. In Rio, work with Redes da Maré analyzed the Censo da Maré, a grassroots census that makes residents visible and strengthens claims to rights. In East Africa, collaboration with Africa’s Voices Foundation revealed how voices, opinions, and stories provide alternative evidence that broadens participation beyond conventional surveys.
InfoCitizen has explored the affective and sensory dimensions of data. Through workshops in Nairobi and creative experiments in Rio—including participatory workshops, mobile audiovisual studios and social-affective cartographies—we examined how data are sensed, narrated, and felt, extending debates on datafication into emotional registers.
Methodologically, InfoCitizen integrates ethnography, archival research, and digital humanities. Training workshops on visualization, audiovisual methods, and multimodal comparative ethnography prepared the team to produce interactive maps, podcasts, and a documentary. By treating visualization and storytelling as analytical tools, the project pushes critical data studies beyond the state of the art.
Capacity building has been central. Doctoral and postdoctoral researchers were mentored in interdisciplinary theorization and participatory fieldwork. Fieldwork in Rio, Lisbon, and Nairobi provided training, while internal workshops fostered exchange and synthesis.
The project has yielded new insights into the politics of census-making, built one of the largest qualitative datasets of Brazilian enumerator interviews, documented grassroots data initiatives in favelas and NGOs, and developed concepts such as “data poetics” and “data imaginaries.” By linking Global South contexts to European debates, InfoCitizen is producing a multidimensional theory of informational citizenship.
