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Beyond Good Intentions: When Does the Framing of Multilingual and Low-Resource NLP Research Become a Caricature?

arXiv · AI, language, vision and robotics · article · Aug 31, 2026 · UTC

Building language technologies and conducting NLP research for low-resource languages---particularly when led by native speakers or involving participatory research practices---are often framed as means of addressing inequality, serving local communities, and, at times, contributing to *decolonisation*. In this paper, we examine recently published NLP and ML papers, focusing on the narratives used to characterise multilinguality, low-resource languages, and underrepresented cultures. We propose a framework for analysing research framings and identify recurring rhetorical patterns that may hind

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