Data Diplomacy as Governance Practice

The implementation of new data regulation has put pressure on organizations to govern their data. However, research on data governance typically focuses on the optimal design of rules and decisionmaking about data. In this paper, we argue that the significant work that goes into responding, when data use is challenged on the basis of regulation, is a legitimate subset of data governance practice. We coin the term data diplomacy to capture how actors make decisions about data as they negotiate issues of ownership, access and control. Drawing on problematization-based theorizing, we mobilize selected instances from research across five empirical settings to outline four data diplomatic responses that exemplify how actors confront, concede, compromise or cover. Data diplomacy as governance practice is expected to contribute insights on how negotiations shape decision-making about data governance.