PhD Defence Isaac Oluoch | FRAME-PRO: Framework for the Responsible and Accountable Mapping of Deprived Urban Areas

FRAME-PRO: Framework for the Responsible and Accountable Mapping of Deprived Urban Areas

Isaac Oluoch is a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr. C. Aydin, prof.dr. M. Kuffer and dr. M.H. Nagenborg from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences and prof.dr. K. Pfeffer from the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation.

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing work being done in the mapping of deprived urban areas (otherwise known as slums and informal settlements) in the Global South. These mapping initiatives are performed by private companies, academic researchers, non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions, utilizing technologies including satellites, drones, mobiles phones, wearable devices and artificial intelligence. These actors engage in the mapping of deprived urban areas for a variety of purposes such as improving capacity building efforts, urban planning, understanding sociodemographic conditions and measuring international policy commitments such as monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals.

While most of the literature written about these mapping initiatives focus on the technical aspects, there is also a growing need to highlight the social, political and ethical issues involved. The focus of my PhD project, FRAME-PRO, is to address such issues, through an interdisciplinary lens and presenting the mapping of deprived urban areas as a geographic and philosophical problem. This project stemmed from the Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS) Faculty Board Signature PhD call in 2019, and collaboration between the Philosophy section of BMS and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-Information Management of ITC.

The chapters comprising my dissertation focus on: i) reviewing ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and geographic information technologies; ii) a genealogical and postphenomenological analysis of cartographic practices and the unique challenges of AI-assisted humanitarian mapping; iii) the potential trade-offs between ethical and practical concerns in the use of geographic information during crises (such as COVID-19); and iv) the hermeneutics of geographic information used for waste management processes. And the insights gained from these chapters contribute to developing a framework for the responsible and accountable mapping of deprived urban areas.