Seminar
Rethinking Open Science through dependency theory
- Batool Almarzouq
- Date
- Friday 19 June 2026
- Time
- Series
- CWTS Research Seminars
- Location
- Online only
About the seminar
Dependency theory explains how resources systematically flow from the “periphery" of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to the wealthy “core”, reinforcing structural inequalities. Samir Amin argued that peripheral nations cannot truly catch up within a capitalist world economy, because the system is inherently polarising: the centre maintains monopolies that secure continued dominance—including over knowledge production—unless countries “delink” from Eurocentric systems and pursue their own autonomous development models.
Open Science has now become another arena where this dynamic plays out. A small number of Western institutions, philanthropies, and NGOs in the Global North largely control the funding ecosystem. If you trace most grassroots Open Science projects back a few steps, you will often find the same funders. This is dependency theory in practice, only repackaged as “openness”. It forces us to ask difficult questions: Who decides what counts as Open Science? Who sets the priorities? What happens if these funders’ agendas shift—or if they withdraw altogether? And could these same funders actively challenge the power dynamics in countries that are not aligned with the West?
In this talk, based on this paper, I look briefly at exclusive systems of knowledge production. I describe how the Open Science movement that was founded to reform science often recycles the same extractive dynamics of neoliberal capitalism described by dependency theory. I show that even when the Global South gains representation at the table of Open Science, they are never allowed to rewrite the rules of the game.
About the speaker and respondents
Batool Almarzouq is an AI Metascience Fellow at EPCC, University of Edinburgh, exploring how AI is shaping disruptive science and influencing scientific norms in research on complex, “wicked” problems. Batool's interests are grounded in open science, with a focus on plural approaches to knowledge production and more equitable research systems. She is particularly interested in how alternative knowledge infrastructures can support intellectual and economic solidarity across global contexts. Batool previously worked as Research Project Manager for the AI for Multiple Long-Term Conditions: Research Support Facility (AIM RSF) at The Alan Turing Institute. Before joining EPCC, Batool was Data Service Manager for the Imagery Smart Data Service (Imago), part of the Smart Data Research UK programme funded by the ESRC, which focuses on improving the usability of satellite imagery for public health, urban planning, and policy.
Ana Parrón Caballero and Rosalba Icaza will respond to Batool’s talk and connect it with their own work. Ana Parrón Cabañero is a PhD candidate at CWTS, working on open science practices and higher education studies, with a focus on institutional research and organisational and cultural change within the scientific landscape. Rosalba Icaza is Full Professor of International Relations, and Scientific Director of the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University. She currently serves as member of the Advisory Academic Board of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and the International Advisory Board of the NWO-funded project Race and Equality in Dutch Academia.