The authors draw on growing critiques of data and platforms more generally to highlight making data open: 1) is labour intensive, costly and dependent upon infrastructural capacities ; 2) relies on socio-cultural values and political biases are embedded into the very aesthetics of platform design; 3) requires further examination of the variety of information and communication technology (ICT) systems, national infrastructures and research environments necessary to generate, process, disseminate and re-use data.” (40)
“To conceptualize the role and reach of data engagement among African scientists” the authors adapted Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach (CA) for human development. (41) They looked at how “an individual transforms those resources into assets and the contexts that constrain that capacity (Sen, 1999, p. 109). Goods and services, in short, are not valuable in and of themselves – they must be ‘converted’ into utilities that a person can use to advance their goals and from which they can ultimately derive some form of value.” (41)
