https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4977-0458
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ABSTRACT
Since early in the development of the project, Wikipedia editors have been concerned with overcoming “systemic biases” in coverage of the world’s knowledge, especially those rooted in forms of social marginalisation. Major campaigns within the Wikipedia community attempt to reverse these disparities, largely by focusing on addressing “gaps” in the demographics of Wikipedia editors and by writing new articles about people and topics overlooked by the encyclopedia. However, many Wikipedia editors and observers have argued that the systemic biases of Wikipedia are inherent to current global distribution of knowledge production, and can only be overcome by changing the encyclopedia’s standards of inclusion.
This article reframes this debate by comparing the project of “countering systemic bias” on Wikipedia with the effort within Western/Northern academia to decolonise and diversify scholarship. Since this project began at least fifty years ago, it has led to abundant peer-reviewed scholarship, all of which qualifies as “reliable sources” for Wikipedia articles. Anthropological scholarship has also overturned the social evolutionary narrative that often shapes popular perceptions of global history. The article proposes that critical scholarship, historical maps, and maps in contemporary scholarship can all contribute to addressing Wikipedia’s systemic biases.
Disclosure statement
Carwil Bjork-James serves on the board of Wiki Education, a US-based nonprofit organization that supports scholars and higher-education teachers improving Wikipedia.
Notes
1 A 2018 Wikimedia Foundation survey found 90% of contributors were male, 9% female, and 1% other. 81% were from the Global north and 85% have post-secondary education, with median education level being completion of a first university degree (Wikimedia Foundation, Citation2018). English Wikipedians were 14% female and 77% holders of a university degree. See also (Livingstone, Citation2010; “Wikipedia,” Citation2009).
2 I have personally observed frequent religious unaffiliation, claimed distancing from racial identity, and skepticism of collective social statuses throughout my fourteen years of editing Wikipedia. For debates in which Wikipedians conflate religious identity with bias, see the debates on depictions of Muhammed (Niesyto, Citation2011; Tkacz, Citation2015, p. 64ff), essays cited by Ayers (Citation2008, p. 358), and comments such as “Usually religion is both irrelevant and contentious” in on-Wiki debates (“RfC: Religion in biographical infoboxes,” Citation2016; “Wikipedia,” Citation2017).
3 Direct analogues to the WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias appear on the Arabic, Dutch, German, and Serbian Wikipedias.
4 A generation later, the effects of this critique were still rippling through archaeology and cultural anthropology (Biolsi & Zimmerman, Citation1997).
5 This quote from Maher (Citation2018) directly addresses journalists, but she extends the critique to “curators, academics, grantmakers, prize-awarding committees, and all other gatekeepers” in her next tweet.
6 By public, I mean conversations that are addressed to a broad audience of Wikipedia editors rather than those taking place within forums specifically focused on the work of countering bias.
7 Responses from community members of 27 Wikipedia project communities are summarized in (Strategy/Wikimedia Movement/Citation2017/Sources/Cycle 3/Final Summary by Language, Citation2017) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Sources/Cycle_3/Final_summary_by_language
8 Hayden White, during part of the crisis of representation in the discipline of history, drew attention to “emplotment” and metanarratives (White, Citation2015). White took the previously unthinkable step of treating historical writing the same way as fiction writing, and forced historians to think about how they reshaped to the past through their efforts to tell a story.
9 I’m including some examples where students expanded existing articles fourfold or more in this list.
10 Tetreault doesn’t use this term, introduced by Kimberle Crenshaw (Citation1991), but rather refers to a “a pluralistic conception of women … which acknowledges diversity and recognizes that other variables besides gender shape women’s lives; for example, race, ethnicity, and social class” (Tetreault, Citation1985, Table 1).
11 For a parallel series of stages, thought through around “internationalizing the women’s studies curriculum,” see Mohanty (Citation2003).