Modalities of Data Diplomacy: How Negotiations Shape Data Governance in Multi-Actor Settings

In a data-driven world, diverse stakeholders increasingly work with data across organizational boundaries. Though unsurprising that such settings involve negotiations about data ownership, access, and control, how these negotiations shape data governance remains unexplored. In the literature, data governance is often predefined in frameworks, but this view rarely accounts for how data come to matter on day-to-day basis. In this paper, we set out to investigate data diplomacy as governance practice. Based on insights from interviews with 12 professionals, we outline five negotiations in multi-actor settings: establishing data ownership, making data available, creating data access, navigating data literacy, and developing data security. We then identify four modalities of data diplomacy that capture how proactive and reactive diplomatic engagements rely on a combination of formal and informal approaches. Our findings shed light on data diplomacy and contribute to understanding data governance in multi-actor settings.