![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Technological change has given rise to the so-called ‘digital revolution’ (DR). How the DR affects food sovereignty (FS) construction remains unclear. This paper explores a balanced point of view, which highlights some key reasons why the DR is bad news for FS but also identifies features of the DR that could bolster FS construction. At the centre of the argument is the concept ‘data curation,’ which connects data-laden, algorithm-infused capitalist enterprises to users of diverse technology services and devices. I examine how data curation is practized by capitalist enterprises in the food sector, focusing in particular on developments pursued by the British food retailer Ocado. I then examine three forms of data curation of relevance to FS construction. Emphasizing the urgency of attending to these new dynamics of FS construction, I conclude the paper with a call for further research on data curation practices of relevance to FS scholars and activists.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Nancy Ettlinger and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. Any errors and omissions are my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Alistair Fraser is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University, Ireland. He holds a PhD in Geography from the Ohio State University, USA. His first book is Global Foodscapes: Oppression and Resistance in the Life of Food (Routledge, 2017). Other works include articles in Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Rural Studies, Environment & Planning A, and Geoforum. Email: [email protected]
Notes
1 Of note here is that, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (Citation2016), there were 98.5 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people worldwide in 2015 and 43.7% of the global population was an internet user, although the figures for ‘developing’ and ‘least developed’ countries were, respectively, 92.9 per 100 people and 36.2%, and 68.3 per 100 people and 12.6%. In other words, digital technologies are pervasive but not universal. Even so, a growing proportion of the world’s population is engaging with data.
2 So sometimes explicitly, for example when users provide direct feedback about the functioning of services.
3 SAS emerged from the agricultural sector in the US to become a leading provider of statistical software used in numerous industries today.
4 For other examples of robots in agriculture, see: http://robohub.org/topic/Environment-Agriculture/
5 Including the price they might eventually pay, which could vary from one user to the next, much as the price of hotel rooms can be affected by the type of computer with which a search is conducted (Cheney-Lippold Citation2017, 187).
6 The NGO Mapping for Change (http://mappingforchange.org.uk/) pursues similar practices (see Couldry and Powell Citation2014, 4).
7 Consider also how effective use of social media is a serious consideration in conferences or events, with Twitter hashtags and post-conference ‘multimedia stories’ used (as a way to satisfy funders but also) to connect wider audiences.
8 Crucially, moreover, even in contexts where the impact of smartphones and the Internet is marginal – perhaps because data plans or devices remain too expensive; or because (mobile) broadband coverage is weak – there is every reason for critical analyses of FS construction to remain alert to data curation.
