Human Development and the Data Revolution

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Human Development and the Data Revolution explores the uses of large-scale data in the contexts of development, in particular, what techniques, data sources, and possibilities exist for harnessing large datasets and new online data to address persistent concerns regarding human development, inequality, exclusion, and participation.

Employing a global perspective to explore the latest advances at the intersection of big data analysis and human development, this volume brings together pioneering voices from academia, development practice, civil society organizations, government, and the private sector. With a two-pronged focus on theoretical and practical research on big data and computational approaches in human development, the volume covers such themes as data acquisition, data management, data mining and statistical analysis, network science, visual analytics, and geographic information systems and discusses them in terms of practical applications in development projects and initiatives. Ethical considerations surrounding these topics are visited throughout, highlighting the tradeoffs between benefitting and harming those who are the subjects of these new approaches.

The authors explore the potentials of big data analysis for development but also the challenges and limitations for its usefulness in contexts of development, illuminating how the measurement and analytical choices made in using big data analysis are far from being neutral or value-free considerations.

Sanna Ojanperä, Quantitative Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and The Alan Turing Institute,Eduardo López, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University,Mark Graham, Professor of Internet Geography, Oxford Internet Institute

Sanna Ojanperä is a quantitative researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and The Alan Turing Institute.


Eduardo López is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University.


Mark Graham is the Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute.

List of FiguresList of TablesList of ContributorsIntroduction, Sanna Ojanperä, Eduardo López, and Mark Graham1. Opportunities and Challenges of Data-driven Development, Sanna Ojanperä, Eduardo López, and Mark Graham2. Big Mobile Data for Social Good: Opportunities and Challenges, Nuria Oliver3. Digital Forms of Exclusion, Big Data, and Measurement of UN Sustainable Development Goals in Africa: An Ecological Systems Theory Perspective, Bitange Ndemo4. Making Human Measurement Matter for Human Development: Towards a Theory of Change for the Data Revolution and "Human AI", Emmanuel Letouzé5. Predicting Socioeconomic Status Using Big Data, Christopher Njuguna and Patrick McSharry6. Reinventing the Social Contract in an Age of Big Data, Bruno Lepri, Nuria Oliver, and Alex Pentland7. Leveraging Big Data for Public Purposes in the Global South: LIRNEasia's Experiences, Sriganesh Lokanathan, Thavisha Perera-Gomez, and Shazna Zuhyle8. Advancing Human Development with Artificial Intelligence: Experimental Work from Uganda, Paula Hidalgo-Sanchis9. Extracting Insights in and around Government: Experiences in South Africa, Vukosi Marivate and Nyalleng Moorosi10. Digital Data Handling: A Tutorial Approach, Eduardo López and Sanna Ojanperä11. Sources of Big Data in Global Development, Eduardo López and Sanna Ojanperä12. Methods for the Analysis of Big Data in Development, Eduardo López and Sanna Ojanperä13. Data Justice for International Development: A Structural Model and Manifesto, Richard Heeks14. The Ethics of Big Data as a Public Good: Which Public? Whose Good?, Linnet Taylor