The Coloniality of Data Work in Latin America

Abstract: This presentation for the AIES 21 doctoral consortium examines the Latin American crowdsourcing market through a decolonial lens. This research is based on the analysis of the web traffic of ninety-three platforms, interviews with Venezuelan data workers of four platforms, and the analysis of the documentation issued by these organizations. The findings show that (1) centuries-old global divisions of labor persist, in this case, with requesters located in advanced economies and workers in the Global South. (2) That the platforms' configuration of the labor process constrains the agency of these workers when producing annotations. And, (3) that ideologies originating from the Global North serve to legitimize and reinforce this global labor market configuration.