Prolegomena for technodiversity: on data and indigeneity

This research note investigates the concept of ‘data’ by deploying the logic of pluriversality. Data has been central to Western paradigms of research. Data suggests that information is a universal value extracted to generate knowledge. It presupposes an either-or logic of thinking because it sees knowledge as composed of unitary ‘bits’ of information. Arguably, this obscures relational processes of knowledge formation since it reifies bits of data, portraying them as independent from their contexts. ‘Data’ is a component of what we call Western monotechnology, which presupposes a universality of knowledge and being that can be quantified. Yet this monotechnology is problematised when we try to operationalise data in Indigenous contexts. Taking the example of Taiwan’s Indigenous Tayal people, we argue that a pluriversal treatment of data suggests that knowledge claims cannot be extirpated from their contexts. Pluriversal thinking is grounded in practices of living/being/doing/knowing that espouse both-and logics, thus surpassing the register of binarity evident in Western research paradigms. Tayal knowledge systems are inherently relational and defy datified either-or logics, as evident in the Tayal law Gaga. Operationalising Yuk Hui’s concept of technodiversity, we call for thinking of data as an emergent property of lifeworlds that need to be safeguarded.