Postgraduate Course: Coloniality of Data (Online) (EFIE11450)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Data is not everything. It signifies neither the truth, nor even knowledge. Data is an epistemic phenomenon that represents merely one way of knowing and doing in this world - but there are many others. This course looks at the legacy of colonialism to understand why and how 'data' has become primary in the knowledge economy - and to contemplate alternate ways of knowing and acting in this world. |
| Course description |
Social and ethical concerns with 'data-driven' practices tend to focus on the 'garbage in, garbage out' problem - i.e., how inequality comes to be embedded in the production and application of 'bad data', and the imperative to produce and use data more responsibly. This course proposes that these concerns, while not irrelevant, are inadequate; for the problem of inequality does not only lie in 'bad data' but in the notion of data itself.
This course interrogates data as a colonial phenomenon produced by epistemic difference - i.e., by inequalities and exclusions regarding what counts as knowing and acting in this world. It locates 'data' within the genealogy of knowledge production to highlight its coloniality.
To do so, in this course we will:
- First, engage the concept of coloniality - and understand its operation in the practices of colonialism.
- Second, draw on the concept of coloniality to understand how what we recognise as 'knowledge' comes to be so. Here, we will address the institution of 'data' within the hegemonic paradigm of knowledge.
- Finally, explore already existing alternate modes of knowing and acting in the world, and of imagining future worlds, that exceed the phenomenon of 'data'.
In keeping with the ethos of the course, we will draw on literary and other cultural texts (film, music, etc.) centring them as modes and sites of knowledge production.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Self-Reflection on Learning Journey (100%)
Final self-reflection on the learning journey, including an explanation of their self-assigned final mark for the course. |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Work with a critical understanding of the principal theories, concepts and principles of coloniality.
- Demonstrate originality and creativity in the addressing the problem of knowledge production and its impact on inequality.
- Critically review, consolidate, and extend thought and action with and against data.
- Communicate, using appropriate methods, to a range of audiences with different levels of knowledge/expertise.
- Demonstrate leadership and/or initiative and make an identifiable contribution to change and development and/or new thinking.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press. (Selections).
Butler, O. (1993). Parable of the Sower. (Novel)
Wynter, S. (2003). Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation--An Argument. CR: The New Centennial Review 3(3), 257-337.
Silva, D. F. (2016). On difference without separability. 2nd Bienal de São Paulo - Incerteza Viva. Catalogue. Edited by Jochen Volz and Júlia Rebouças. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, pp. 57-65.
Recommended Reading:
Césaire, A. (2001). Discourse on Colonialism. United States: Monthly Review Press.
Fanon, F. (2004). The wretched of the earth. United Kingdom: Grove Press. (Selections)
Maldonado-Torres, N. (2016). Outline of ten theses on coloniality and decoloniality.
McKittrick, K. (2021). Dear Science and Other Stories. United Kingdom: Duke University Press. (Selections)
Murphy, M. (2017). The Economization of Life. United Kingdom: Duke University Press. (Selections)
Quijano, A., & Ennis, M. (2000). Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South 1(3), 533-580.
Wynter, S. (2001). Toward the sociogenic principle: Fanon, identity, the puzzle of conscious experience, and what it is like to be 'Black'. In: Durán-Cogan, Mercedes F., Gómez-Moriana, Antonio (eds) National Identities and Sociopolitical Changes in Latin America. London: Routledge.
Silva, D. F. (2018). Hacking the Subject: Black Feminism and Refusal beyond the Limits of Critique. philoSOPHIA 8(1), 19-41.
Tuck. E. and Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1(1), 1-40. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Coloniality,Epistemology,Inequality,Data,Colonialism |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Rashne Limki
Tel: (0131 6)51 2345
Email: Rashne.Limki@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr David Murphy
Tel:
Email: dmurphy7@ed.ac.uk |
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