Big Data and the Global South: A Case for Dialogue

Abstract

This contribution identifies and critiques the role that dialogue could play as an important tool in bridging the gap between Northern and Southern imaginaries, perceptions and realities on the presence of data mining corporates in Africa, Latin America, the Arab World, Asia and other regions of the world that do not associate themselves with the highly industrialized West. Coming at a time when cynicism over the presence of Silicon Valley and other major data players in Africa and other non-Western regions of the world has been growing, a stakeholders’ dialogue to openly discuss and conscientize all parties on how and why the presence of these major tech players may be deemed unwelcome by locals and other observers.