Descolonizando los métodos para estudiar la cultura digital: una propuesta desde Latinoamérica

Edgar Gómez-Cruz; Paola Ricaurte; Ignacio  Siles

doi:10.7764/cdi.54.52605

Authors

Edgar Gómez-Cruz University of Texas at Austin
Paola Ricaurte Tecnológico de Monterrey
Ignacio Siles Universidad de Costa Rica

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.54.52605

Keywords:

methods, Latin America, decolonization, digital culture

Abstract

This paper makes an epistemic political intervention in three parts. First, we elaborate a critique of the theoretical methodological logics usually reproduced without considering the differences between the place where the methods originated and the place where they are applied. Specifically, we problematize the idea of novelty, which has been predominant in the study of digital phenomena. Second, we discuss some elements of the so-called decolonial turn that we consider inspiring to account for the relationship between methodologies and research on digital culture. Third, we advance a series of specific proposals to develop methodologies that respond to the specific contexts of Latin America and digital culture.

Author Biographies

Edgar Gómez-Cruz, University of Texas at Austin

Edgar Gómez-Cruz, associate professor at the School of Information at the University of Texas, Austin. He has published widely on a variety of topics related to digital culture, specifically in the fields of material visual practices, digital ethnography, and critical approaches to digital technologies.

Paola Ricaurte, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Paola Ricaurte, associate researcher at the Department of Media and Digital Culture at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, associate professor at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and co-founder of the Tierra Común network. She coordinates the Latin American and Caribbean node of the Feminist Network for Research in Artificial Intelligence, f<A+I>r, and CLACSO’s Communication, Cultures, and Politics working group.

Ignacio Siles, Universidad de Costa Rica

Ignacio Siles, professor at the School of Communication and researcher at the Center for Communication Research (CICOM), both at the Universidad de Costa Rica. His research work focuses on the social, political, and cultural implications of the use of technologies such as social networks and algorithms. His most recent books include Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica (MIT Press, 2023) and A transnational history of the Internet in Central America (1985-2000) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

References

Abiteboul, S. & Dowek, G. (2020). The Age of Algorithms. Cambridge University Press.

Bejarano, C. A., Juárez, L. L., García, M. A. M., & Goldstein, D. M. (2019). Decolonizing Ethnography: Undocumented Immigrants and New Directions in Social Science. Duke University Press.

Bernal, V. (2021). Digitality and Decolonization: A Response to Achille Mbembe. African Studies Review, 64(1), 41-56. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2020.90

Castro-Gómez, J. & R. Grosfoguel. (Eds.). (2007). El giro decolonial. Reflexiones para una diversidad epistémica más allá del capitalismo global (The decolonial turn. Reflections for an epistemic diversity beyond global capitalism). Siglo del Hombre Editores.

Chaar López, I. (2022). Latina/o/e technoscience: Labor, race, and gender in cybernetics and computing. Social Studies of Science, 52(6), 829–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127221108515

Christin, A. (2020). The ethnographer and the algorithm: beyond the black box. Theory and Society, 49, 897–918. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09411-3

Chun, W. H. K. (2021). Discriminating data: Correlation, neighborhoods, and the new politics of recognition. The MIT Press.

Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. The MIT Press.

Cunsolo Willox, A., Harper, S. L., & Edge, V. L. (2013). Storytelling in a digital age: digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom. Qualitative Research, 13(2), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112446105

De Souza Santos, B. (2018). Justicia entre saberes: Epistemologías del Sur contra el epistemicidio (Justice among knowledge: Epistemologies of the South against epistemicide). Ediciones Morata.

Dourish, P. & Gómez Cruz, E. (2018). Datafication and data fiction: Narrating data and narrating with data. Big Data & Society, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718784083

Escobar, A. (2020). Política pluriversal: lo real y lo posible en el pensamiento crítico y las luchas latinoamericanas contemporáneas (Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible in Contemporary Latin American Critical Thought and Struggles). Tabula Rasa, (36), 323-354. https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n36.13

Ewing, S. (2020). Decolonizing Research Methods. In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J. W. Sakshaug, & R. A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036900255

Fals-Borda, O. (1985). El problema de cómo investigar la realidad para transformarla: por la praxis (The problem of how to investigate reality to transform it: through praxis). Tercer mundo.

Fals Borda, O. & Mora-Osejo, L. E. (2004). La superación del Eurocentrismo. Enriquecimiento del saber sistémico y endógeno sobre nuestro contexto tropical. (Overcoming Eurocentrism. Enrichment of systemic and endogenous knowledge on our tropical context). Polis. Revista Latinoamericana, (7). http://journals.openedition.org/polis/6210

Flores-Márquez, D. (2021). Digital Media and Emancipation in Latin American Communication Thinking. In A. C. Suzina (Ed.), The Evolution of Popular Communication in Latin America (pp. 191-208). Palgrave Macmillan.

Fúnez-Flores, J. I. (2022). Decolonial and Ontological Challenges in Social and Anthropological Theory. Theory, Culture & Society, 39(6), 21–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211073011

Galindo, M. (2020). Feminismo bastardo (Bastard feminism). Mantis Narrativa.

Glück, A. (2018). De-Westernization and Decolonization in Media Studies. In D. L. Cloud (Ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Communication and Critical Studies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.898

Gómez Cruz, E. (2022). Tecnologías vitales: Pensar las culturas digitales desde Latinoamérica (Vital technologies: Thinking digital cultures from Latin America). Universidad Panamericana.

Hammond, C., Gifford, W., Thomas, R., Rabaa, S., Thomas, O., & Domecq, M.-C. (2018). Artsbased research methods with indigenous peoples: an international scoping review. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 14(3), 260–276. https://doi.org/10.1177/1177180118796870

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Hicks, M. (2017). Programmed inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing. The MIT Press.

Hlabangane, N. (2018). Can a Methodology Subvert the Logics of its Principal? Decolonial Meditations. Perspectives on Science, 26(6), 658-693. https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00293

Jones, S. (Ed.). (1998). Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net. SAGE.

Kaplún, G. (2019). La comunicación alternativa entre lo digital y lo decolonial (The alternative communication between digital and decolonial). Chasqui: Revista Latinoamericana de Comunicación, (141), 67-86.

Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class, 60(4), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818823172

Leal, D. D. C., Strohmayer, A., & Krüger, M. (2021a). On Activism and Academia: Reflecting Together and Sharing Experiences Among Critical Friends. In Y. Kitamura & A. Quigley (Chairs), Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-18). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445263

Leal, D. D. C., Krüger, M., Teles, V. T. E., Teles, C. A. T. E., Cardoso, D. M., Randall, D., & Wulf, V. (2021b). Digital Technology at the Edge of Capitalism: Experiences from the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 28(3), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1145/3448072

Lozano Lerma, B. R. (2016). Tejiendo con retazos de memorias insurgencias epistémicas de mujeres negras/afrocolombianas. Aportes a un feminismo negro decolonial (Weaving with scraps of memories epistemic insurgencies of black/Afro-Colombian women. Contributions to a decolonial black feminism) (Doctoral dissertation, Universidad Andina Simón Bolivar). http://hdl.handle.net/10644/4895

Leurs, K. (2017). Feminist Data Studies: Using Digital Methods for Ethical, Reflexive and Situated Socio-Cultural Research. Feminist Review, 115(1), 130–154. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41305-017-0043-1

Light, B., Burgess, J., & Duguay, S. (2018). The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps. New Media & Society, 20(3), 881–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675438

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2018). Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and Decolonization. Routledge.

Nemer, D. (2022). Technology of the Oppressed: Inequity and the Digital Mundane in Favelas of Brazil. The MIT Press.

Portugal, I. C. & Giebeler, C. (Eds.). (2019). Prójimos: prácticas de investigación desde la horizontalidad (Alikes: research practices from a horizontal perspective). Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.

Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 168-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601164353

Ricaurte, P. (2019). Data Epistemologies, The Coloniality of Power, and Resistance. Television & New Media, 20(4), 350–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419831640

Ricaurte, P. (2022). Ethics for the majority world: AI and the question of violence at scale. Media, Culture & Society, 44(4), 726–745. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221099612

Rix, E. F., Wilson, S., Sheehan, N., & Tujague, N. (2018). Indigenist and Decolonizing Research Methodology. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (pp. 1-15). Springer.

Robards, B. & Lincoln, S. (2017). Uncovering longitudinal life narratives: scrolling back on Facebook. Qualitative Research, 17(6), 715–730. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794117700707

Rodríguez, R. P. & da Costa, S. (2019). Descolonizar las herramientas metodológicas. Una experiencia de investigación feminista (Decolonizing methodological tools. A feminist research experience). Millcayac - Revista Digital De Ciencias Sociales, 6(11), 13–30. https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs3/index.php/millca-digital/article/view/2242

Rogers, R. (2013). Digital Methods. The MIT Press.

Sandoval, C. (2013). Methodology of the Oppressed (Vol. 18). U of Minnesota Press.

Siles, I. (2023). Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica. The MIT Press.

Siles, I., Espinoza-Rojas, J., Naranjo, A., & Tristán, M. F. (2019). The Mutual Domestication of Users and Algorithmic Recommendations on Netflix. Communication, Culture & Critique, 12(4), 499–518. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz025

Siles, I., Gómez-Cruz, E., & Ricaurte, P. (2022) Toward a popular theory of algorithms. Popular Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2103140

Siles, I., Segura-Castillo, A., Solís, R., & Sancho, M. (2020). Folk theories of algorithmic recommendations on Spotify: Enacting data assemblages in the global South. Big Data & Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720923377

Siles, I., Valerio-Alfaro, L., & Meléndez-Moran, A. (2022). Learning to like TikTok . . . and not: Algorithm awareness as process. New Media & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221138973

Sloan, L. & Quan-Haase, A. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. SAGE.

Tironi, M. & Valderrama, M. (2021). Descolonizando los sistemas algorítmicos: diseño crítico para la problematización de algoritmos y datos digitales desde el Sur (Decolonizing Algorithmic Systems: A Critical Design to Problematize Algorithms and Digital Data from the South). Palabra Clave, 24(3), e2432. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2021.24.3.2

Thambinathan, V. & Kinsella, E. A. (2021). Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Creating Spaces for Transformative Praxis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211014766

Trere, E. & Milan, S. (2021). Perspectivas latinoamericanas sobre la datificación y la inteligencia artificial: Tradiciones, intervenciones y posibilidades (Latin American Perspectives on Datification and Artificial Intelligence: Traditions, Interventions, and Possibilities). Palabra Clave, 24(3), e2431. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2021.24.3.1

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2016). A descolonizar las metodologías. Investigación y pueblos indígenas. (Decolonizing methodologies. Research and indigenous peoples). LOM.

Urquijo, A. A. & Díaz, A. F. (2018). Saberes para el buen vivir en la cultura digital desde el sur global (Knowledge for good living in the digital culture from the global South). In A. I. Nogales-Bocio, M. A. Solans García, & C. Marta-Lazo (Eds.), Estándares e indicadores para la calidad informativa en los medios digitales (Standards and indicators for news quality in digital media). Egregius Editores.

Waisbord, S. & Mellado, C. (2014). De-westernizing Communication Studies: A Reassessment. Communication Theory, 24(4), 361-372. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12044

Zemelman M. H., (2021). Pensar Teórico y Pensar Epistémico: los retos de las Ciencias Sociales latinoamericanas (Theoretical Thinking and Epistemic Thinking: The Challenges of Latin American Social Sciences). Espacio Abierto, 30(3), 234-244. https://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/espacio/article/view/36823