institutional-mission-statements/ruder-wittman-data-justice-mission

Quote / Position

“Many common practices in agricultural data governance have fundamental limitations to achieving data justice. Overcoming these limitations will require structural change, including new laws and regulatory frameworks, novel governance structures, capacity building, and solidarity across movements.”

Context

Sarah-Louise Ruder (SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Ottawa School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies) + Hannah Wittman (Professor, UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems; member, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability).

Substantive papers:

• Ruder & Wittman (2025). Agricultural data governance from the ground up: Exploring data justice with agri-food movements. Big Data & Society. Cited 22 times. 40 workshops + 26 conferences, 2020-2023, with farmers + farming organizations + government policy + civil society + academic researchers across Western Canada, US, Latin America.
• Ruder (2025). Theorizing agricultural data policy and governance. Journal of Peasant Studies. Cited 14 times.
• Duncan, E. et al. (incl. Ruder). (2026). The political economy of agricultural data governance. Journal of Rural Studies. Cited 6 times.
• BCACARN Ethical Data Governance Toolkit (2024) — first documented Canadian agrifood ethical data governance toolkit.

The substantive contribution: data-justice framing of Canadian agrifood data governance; CARE principles engagement; 40-workshop empirical methodology. Distinct from Neethirajan (Dalhousie; AI-deployed-on-the-farm voice), Dara (U Guelph; greenhouse AI risk), Charlebois (Dalhousie; pragmatic-critical) — those are AI-deployment critical voices. Ruder-Wittman are the data-governance critical voices.

Source

Ruder, S.-L. & Wittman, H. (2025). Agricultural data governance from the ground up: Exploring data justice with agri-food movements. Big Data & Society. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517251330182