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Paper short abstract

This paper analyzes how a Chinese NGO used big data for environmental accountability, expanding civic agency and rights. Framed through Sen’s “development as freedom,” and theories of digital citizenship, it addresses empowerment and authoritarian constraints in the digital age.

Paper long abstract

Digital technologies increasingly mediate citizenship, creating spaces for both empowerment and control. This paper examines a Chinese case where an environmental NGO leveraged big data to enforce policy compliance and corporate accountability.

By locating and linking publicly available ESG (environmental, social and governance) data with environmental standards (e.g., policies, regulations, and laws), the NGO exposed ‘frictions’ and ‘tensions’ in the actual implementation of those standards and acted accordingly to addressing corporate environmental accountability. Their work resulted in increasing public participation and eventually to policy adjustments, demonstrating how data-driven strategies can expand civic agency and rights.

The analysis draws from Sen’s “development as freedom”, emphasizing the role of information in enhancing capabilities, and rights-based development frameworks, which foreground accountability and participation. It also engages with digital citizenship theory (Isin & Ruppert, 2015) and data justice (Taylor, 2017), exploring how data practices enable new forms of civic action while remaining vulnerable to authoritarian governance. This duality reflects broader debates on technopolitics (Bijker & Law, 1992), situating the case within global discussions on digital governance.

By interrogating the tensions between digital empowerment and authoritarian constraints, the paper contributes to understanding how civil society actors in the Global South navigate power asymmetries through technology, (re)shaping development discourses in the digital age.