TY - JOUR
T1 - Racial formation, coloniality, and climate finance organizations
T2 - Implications for emergent data projects in the Pacific
AU - Anantharajah, Kirsty
N1 - Funding Information:
I am very thankful for Henne and Orr for their insightful reviews and comments. I would also like to acknowledge the collegiality and generosity of the School of Government, Development and International Affairs at The University of the South Pacific, who supported me as a visiting scholar while I conducted this research. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - This commentary explores the potential consequence of latent racial formation in emergent climate finance data projects and draws from ethnographic research on climate finance governance conducted in Fiji. Climate finance data projects emerging in the Pacific aim to ease the flow of finance from the Global North to the South. These emergent data projects, such as renewable energy resource availability and investment mapping, are imbedded in the climate finance organizations that fund, develop, and use them. Thus, the commentary explores climate finance organizations through the lens of Ray’s (2019) theory of racial organizations, highlighting the ways in which important climate-related resources are mediated through racial and colonial schemas. The racial mediation of two key resources are spotlighted in this discussion: the finance itself and knowledge. Given that the Pacific region is at the coalface of climate change’s existential effects, the just allocation of resources is imperative. In interrogating the ways in which emergent data projects may deny these resources based on hidden racial schemas, the paper cautions against new and old forms of colonization that may be mobilized through even well-meaning techno-benevolent fixes (Benjamin, 2019).
AB - This commentary explores the potential consequence of latent racial formation in emergent climate finance data projects and draws from ethnographic research on climate finance governance conducted in Fiji. Climate finance data projects emerging in the Pacific aim to ease the flow of finance from the Global North to the South. These emergent data projects, such as renewable energy resource availability and investment mapping, are imbedded in the climate finance organizations that fund, develop, and use them. Thus, the commentary explores climate finance organizations through the lens of Ray’s (2019) theory of racial organizations, highlighting the ways in which important climate-related resources are mediated through racial and colonial schemas. The racial mediation of two key resources are spotlighted in this discussion: the finance itself and knowledge. Given that the Pacific region is at the coalface of climate change’s existential effects, the just allocation of resources is imperative. In interrogating the ways in which emergent data projects may deny these resources based on hidden racial schemas, the paper cautions against new and old forms of colonization that may be mobilized through even well-meaning techno-benevolent fixes (Benjamin, 2019).
KW - climate finance
KW - data projects
KW - Fiji
KW - Pacific
KW - postcolonial
KW - Racial formation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109029092&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20539517211027600
DO - 10.1177/20539517211027600
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:85109029092
SN - 2053-9517
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Big Data and Society
JF - Big Data and Society
IS - 1
ER -