AI and Surveillance Capitalism in, by and from the Global South: a journalistic investigation of academic production related to big tech

• Grant number: 25/06230-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Journalism
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Rafael de Almeida Evangelista
• Grantee: Fabricio Solagna
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Desenvolvimento da Criatividade (NUDECRI). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fundação De Amparo À Pesquisa Do Estado De São Paulo/Sde, Brazil

Abstract

This proposal is an action research for scientific dissemination of academic papers on surveillance capitalism in, through, and from the Global South. For methodological purposes, a situated perspective inspired by Haraway (1995) has been adopted, based on the understanding that scientific knowledge production is not neutral. Consequently, events and dynamics originating in the Global South are taken as the starting point of the investigation.From this standpoint, academic works will be selected from leading scholarly journals in the fields of Sociology, Anthropology, Communication, and Political Science. The proposal is structured around three methodological axes: (a) the economic centrality of the Global South in surveillance capitalism (in the Global South), (b) partnerships between companies from the Global South and the Global North (through the Global South), and (c) power asymmetries and initiatives emerging from the Global South that aim to disrupt these relations (from the Global South).Guided by these lenses, new texts will be produced, highlighting these features as found in existing research. The outcomes will be published on the project's website, on partner websites, and on selected social media platforms, with a particular emphasis on an outreach experiment conducted via a federated social network-Mastodon-connected to the fediverse, a collection of technologies used for decentralized web hosting.The objective is to map and communicate the main themes explored in academic studies on surveillance capitalism, as interpreted through the outlined conceptual framework, and to disseminate this knowledge to a broader audience beyond academic journals. This includes scholars, researchers, journalists, and individuals interested in the topic. Ultimately, this exercise seeks to foster new forms of engagement with readers in an open and federated digital environment. (AU)