@article{MacGinty:319903,
      recid = {319903},
      author = {Mac Ginty, Roger and Firchow, Pamina Maria},
      title = {The data myth interrogating the evidence base for  evidence-based peacebuilding},
      address = {2024},
      number = {ARTICLE},
      abstract = {This article interrogates three claims made in relation to  the use of data in relation to peace. That more data,  faster data, and impartial data will lead to better policy  and practice outcomes. Taken together, this data myth  relies on a lack of curiosity about the provenance of data  and the infrastructure that produces it and asserts its  legitimacy. Our discussion is concerned with issues of  power, inclusion, and exclusion, and particularly how  knowledge hierarchies attend to the collection and use of  data in relation to conflict-affected contexts. We  therefore question the axiomatic nature of these data myth  claims and argue that the structure and dynamics of  peacebuilding actors perpetuate the myth. We advocate a  fuller reflection of the data wave that has overtaken us  and echo calls for an ethics of numbers. In other words,  this article is concerned with the evidence base for  evidence-based peacebuilding. Mindful of the policy  implications of our concerns, the article puts forward five  tenets of good practice in relation to data and the  peacebuilding sector. The concluding discussion further  considers the policy implications of the data myth in  relation to peace, and particularly, the consequences of  casting peace and conflict as technical issues that can be  “solved” without recourse to human and political factors.},
      url = {http://repository.graduateinstitute.ch/record/319903},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2024.80},
}