Digitization as politics: Smart farming through the lens of weak and strong data

• Published in: Journal of rural studies Vol. 91; pp. 208 - 216
• Main Author: Carolan, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Agriculture; Agriculture 4.0; Alternative approaches; Automation; Big Data; Conventions; Digital agriculture; Digitization; Empirical analysis; empirical research; engineering; engineers; farm labor; Farmers; Farming; farming systems; Farms; interviews; land; languages; Ontology; Optimism; politics; Precision agriculture; Responsible innovation; Robotics; rooting; roots; Precision agriculture; Automation; Big data; Robotics; Agriculture 4.0; Responsible innovation
• ISSN: 0743-0167; 1873-1392
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.10.040

This paper offers an alternative approach for engaging sociologically, ontologically, and politically with digital farming platforms. A challenge faced by any approach looking to upend intellectual conventions, especially ontological ones, lies in the question of representation, namely, how do we talk about digitization in novel theoretical ways using language rooted in more than two millennia of western human-centered thought? One way to deal with this challenge, the one adopted in this paper, involves decentering familiar terms and repurposing them. Thus, rather than organizing the argument around familiar terms like small and big data, I argue instead that we organize data-assemblages according to what they do, which makes this a political ontological project. To do this, I offer the relational predicate of weak data and strong data, suggesting that they are good to think with in this regard. The argument ultimately lands at a place for analyzing these platforms that offers the potential for critique and perhaps even a degree of optimism, as I suggest a framework for normatively evaluating these practices. The paper draws upon various empirical studies of digital agriculture conducted by the author, which include interviews with farmers, farm laborers, hacktivists, investors, and engineers from numerous countries and locales. •Digital farming platforms ought to be judged by what they do.•The outcomes and impacts of Agriculture 4.0 are unevenly distributed.•More social science research is needed on the subject.