SURREPTITIOUS EXPERIMENTATION: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES AND STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE IN THE HUMANITARIAN INDUSTRY.

Abstract

The humanitarian sector is known for its reliance on technological pilots as part of the digitisation and datafication of aid operations. Drawing on ten years of research in the aid sector, this paper outlines a new type of technological experimentation which I term surreptitious experimentation. This type of experimentation is possible as digital technologies and practices become enmeshed with the infrastructures of aid. This process of infrastructuring allows for a continuous flow of experimentation, which is not named as such, and which operates in the infrastructural background, and therefore remains hidden – yet in plain sight. Surreptitious experiments take place outside the laboratory, without clear boundaries, meaningful consent or processes of accountability. In so doing, surreptitious experiments compound the power asymmetries of humanitarianism with significant risks and harms for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.