Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InfoCitizen (Informational Citizenship: Toward a Global Ethnography of Practices and Infrastructures of Datafication in the Global South)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-07-01 al 2025-12-31
In today’s world, numbers and data are everywhere—shaping how governments decide, how societies see themselves, and how citizens claim their rights. Yet behind every number are political choices: what gets counted, who is left out, and how information is used. Disputes around data have become central to political life. In Brazil, controversies nearly derailed the 2020 census. In Europe, Portugal and Germany debate whether to collect ethnocultural data. In Africa, agencies warn of “data deprivation” and promote technology-driven methods. These struggles reveal a deeper issue: citizenship today is tied to being visible, counted, and able to act through data.
Citizens are also creating their own forms of data to expose inequality and demand accountability. In Rio de Janeiro, favela groups run censuses to map residents’ lives. In Berlin, “Afrozensus” documents discrimination absent from official statistics. In Kenya and Tanzania, citizens use smartphones to gather local data. These initiatives are more than numbers: they concern dignity, belonging, and the power to shape the future.
InfoCitizen investigates these practices to understand how a new kind of citizenship is emerging—what we call informational citizenship. The project asks: How do official, top-down systems interact with grassroots initiatives? What tools and alliances are being forged? And how do data practices affect experiences of identity, participation, and inclusion?
The project studies five countries—Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Tanzania, and Kenya—chosen for their roles in the politics of data: contested statistics (Brazil), silences around race and ethnicity (Portugal and Germany), and struggles against data poverty (Tanzania and Kenya). By following both top-down and bottom-up practices, the project examines how information gains authority and shapes belonging.
The objectives are fourfold: to uncover infrastructures and controversies behind official systems; to analyze citizen-led initiatives; to explore how data production and circulation affect identities and subjectivities; and to map networks connecting grassroots activism with global institutions.
Expected impact is threefold: theoretically, developing an interdisciplinary theory of informational citizenship; empirically, generating insights into how communities use data to empower themselves and contest invisibility, with attention to marginalized groups; and practically, producing resources such as interactive visualizations, best-practice reports, a documentary, podcasts, and public events. Together, these contributions will advance scholarship and offer knowledge to rethink how citizenship is lived and claimed in the digital age.
Citizens are also creating their own forms of data to expose inequality and demand accountability. In Rio de Janeiro, favela groups run censuses to map residents’ lives. In Berlin, “Afrozensus” documents discrimination absent from official statistics. In Kenya and Tanzania, citizens use smartphones to gather local data. These initiatives are more than numbers: they concern dignity, belonging, and the power to shape the future.
InfoCitizen investigates these practices to understand how a new kind of citizenship is emerging—what we call informational citizenship. The project asks: How do official, top-down systems interact with grassroots initiatives? What tools and alliances are being forged? And how do data practices affect experiences of identity, participation, and inclusion?
The project studies five countries—Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Tanzania, and Kenya—chosen for their roles in the politics of data: contested statistics (Brazil), silences around race and ethnicity (Portugal and Germany), and struggles against data poverty (Tanzania and Kenya). By following both top-down and bottom-up practices, the project examines how information gains authority and shapes belonging.
The objectives are fourfold: to uncover infrastructures and controversies behind official systems; to analyze citizen-led initiatives; to explore how data production and circulation affect identities and subjectivities; and to map networks connecting grassroots activism with global institutions.
Expected impact is threefold: theoretically, developing an interdisciplinary theory of informational citizenship; empirically, generating insights into how communities use data to empower themselves and contest invisibility, with attention to marginalized groups; and practically, producing resources such as interactive visualizations, best-practice reports, a documentary, podcasts, and public events. Together, these contributions will advance scholarship and offer knowledge to rethink how citizenship is lived and claimed in the digital age.
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.
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.
InfoCitizen has moved beyond the state of the art by bridging studies of official statistics and grassroots data practices, showing them to be interdependent and mutually shaping. This comparative approach—across Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Kenya, and Tanzania—offers a rare global view of how informational citizenship is constituted.
The project has expanded methods by combining ethnography, history, and digital humanities, treating data not just as technical outputs but as lived and affective phenomena. Tools such as a mobile audiovisual studio, “social-affective cartography,” and visualization workshops broaden critical data studies, making data visible as both infrastructure and experience.
The project also achieved breakthroughs in participatory research. Partnerships with Redes da Maré in Brazil, Africa’s Voices Foundation in Kenya, and Afrozensus in Germany produced co-designed research and formal agreements, ensuring community knowledge is integrated into outputs. This sets a model for more inclusive and responsible research on data justice.
Impacts are wide-ranging. For scholarship, the project develops a multidimensional theory of informational citizenship linking infrastructures, communities, and affects. For policy, findings show how census categories, silences, and grassroots initiatives shape inclusion and equality. For civil society, the project offers evidence and tools to strengthen advocacy and design fairer data infrastructures. Interactive visualizations, podcasts, and a forthcoming documentary make results accessible beyond academia.
To ensure further uptake, the project will invest in comparative research, digital visualization infrastructures, and partnerships with statistical agencies and NGOs. It will also assess how its outputs can inform data literacy in the Global South and influence equality-data debates in Europe. Expanding international collaboration will extend its reach, while participatory partnerships will secure the long-term value of grassroots contributions.
The project has expanded methods by combining ethnography, history, and digital humanities, treating data not just as technical outputs but as lived and affective phenomena. Tools such as a mobile audiovisual studio, “social-affective cartography,” and visualization workshops broaden critical data studies, making data visible as both infrastructure and experience.
The project also achieved breakthroughs in participatory research. Partnerships with Redes da Maré in Brazil, Africa’s Voices Foundation in Kenya, and Afrozensus in Germany produced co-designed research and formal agreements, ensuring community knowledge is integrated into outputs. This sets a model for more inclusive and responsible research on data justice.
Impacts are wide-ranging. For scholarship, the project develops a multidimensional theory of informational citizenship linking infrastructures, communities, and affects. For policy, findings show how census categories, silences, and grassroots initiatives shape inclusion and equality. For civil society, the project offers evidence and tools to strengthen advocacy and design fairer data infrastructures. Interactive visualizations, podcasts, and a forthcoming documentary make results accessible beyond academia.
To ensure further uptake, the project will invest in comparative research, digital visualization infrastructures, and partnerships with statistical agencies and NGOs. It will also assess how its outputs can inform data literacy in the Global South and influence equality-data debates in Europe. Expanding international collaboration will extend its reach, while participatory partnerships will secure the long-term value of grassroots contributions.