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The digital writing of human rights narratives: failure, recognition, and the unruly inscriptions of database infrastructures
Drawing on empirical research, this article explores the possible socio-political effects of database infrastructures on the shaping and construction of human rights narratives. While it has become commonplace to theorise human rights through the lens of narrative, academic debates have largely ignored the technical infrastructures through which human rights narratives are constructed. The article responds to this gap by deploying and developing theoretical tools from software and infrastructure studies to consider database infrastructures as complex sociotechnical devices that engender socio-political consequences for narrative possibilities. Focusing on two key examples drawn from the empirical research, the article demonstrates the necessity of developing a critical attentiveness to the ways that human rights narratives are shaped by digital infrastructure. In doing so, the article develops and complicates infrastructure and software studies approaches whilst also demonstrating their value for other fields of research which do not ordinarily come under their purview.
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Publication status
- Published
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- Published version
Journal
The Sociological ReviewISSN
0038-0261Publisher
SAGEExternal DOI
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1-20Department affiliated with
- Sociology and Criminology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2023-01-11First Open Access (FOA) Date
2023-03-08First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2023-01-11Usage metrics
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