DECOLONIZATION OF SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DATA COLONIALISM, AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

As artificial intelligence-based spatial knowledge systems are rapidly integrated into public administration practices, the question of who produces spatial knowledge, for what purposes, and within which power relations is acquiring ever greater significance. This article analyses this transformation through the combined lenses of human geography and public administration, arguing that AI-driven spatial knowledge production constitutes a new regime of power marked by continuity with historical colonial practices. Drawing on critical cartography, data colonialism theory, algorithmic space, and accountability literatures, the study demonstrates that algorithmic systems do not represent space neutrally but systematically render certain geographies and knowledge forms visible while excluding others. These processes of exclusion, discussed through digital extractivism, visibility regimes, and algorithmic urban governance, produce structural inequalities in access to public services and transform traditional accountability mechanisms. The tensions are grounded at the national scale through the case of Turkey, examining e-government transformation, urban renewal policies, and local governments' growing dependence on algorithmic infrastructures. The article discusses decolonial intervention possibilities through the concepts of data sovereignty, counter-mapping, and pluriversal geographies, and proposes a policy framework for accountable governance along the axes of algorithmic transparency, participatory data governance, and regulatory capacity.