Dependent or not? From a daily practice of Earth observation research in the Global South to promoting adequate developmental spaces in science and technology studies

Abstract

Ever since the operation of the first civilian Earth observation (EO) satellites gained momentum in the 1970s, potential benefits and disadvantages of transferring space science and technologies, such as remote sensing techniques, have also been discussed in relation to developing countries. However, this debate has so far largely taken place at a macro-comparative level. This paper presents results from moving to the ethnographic micro level in southwest Nigeria. It sets the experiences of researchers from the Global South, who use remote sensing data, in relation to a critical review of (post-)development theory perspectives and corresponding discourses in postcolonial science and technology studies (STS). The paper discusses how researchers construct collective agency towards capacity building as a shared liberatory language in relation to an amalgam of experienced and contested places in the EO community. At the intersection of STS, geography and the arena of development policies, these experiences create their own spatial references to a developing niche that invites scholars and development practitioners to rethink and reorganise knowledge production and technologies in a postcolonial world.