  This article interrogates the techno-politics of crowdsourced data in the
study of environmental hazards such as floods, storms, wildfires, and cyclones.
We highlight some of the main debates around the use of citizen-generated data
for assessing, monitoring, and responding to disasters. We then argue that,
compared to the number of articles discussing the quality of citizen-generated
data, little attention has been dedicated to discussing the social and
political implications of this kind of practice. While this article does not
intend to present definitive answers, it outlines inevitable challenges and
indicates potential directions for future studies on the techno-politics of
disaster data collection. Within a techno-politics approach, we argue for a
model of political participation that recognizes citizens providing data to
shape cities as equal experts in the production of knowledge and
decision-making, rather than external contributors collecting data for formal
authorities. This political participation approach, we believe, would increase
the dependence of formal scientific knowledge on citizens' daily-lived
experiences, create horizontal collaborations among diverse stakeholders, in
terms of respect and recognition, and increase the humanization of marginalized
communities, particularly from the Global South.
