Exploring Data Justice in Citizen Humanities: Case Studies from Memory Institutions

ABSTRACT Today, while one sector can effortlessly gain access to data provided by another, there may also be instances of injustice between data producers and decision‐makers. This study applies Heeks and Shekhar's framework of data justice to analyze two humanities and citizen science projects in Taiwan: the collection of old photos by the Taipei Public Library and the citizen archivist project of the National Archives Administration. The study explores data justice issues within libraries and archives and examines the applicability of the data justice framework to citizen humanities projects. The research findings indicate that although there are unequal power dynamics between institutions and citizen scientists regarding data, the selected cases involve relatively straightforward task contexts and individuals, resulting in minimal violation of data rights for citizen scientists. Consequently, these two projects have limited observable instances of data injustice.