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Showing papers in "Big Data & Society in 2018"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: People's lay concepts of algorithmic versus human decisions in a management context are revealed and it is suggested that task characteristics matter in understanding people's experiences with algorithmic technologies.
Abstract: Algorithms increasingly make managerial decisions that people used to make. Perceptions of algorithms, regardless of the algorithms' actual performance, can significantly influence their adoption, ...

478 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of broken data is introduced and demonstrated through three examples drawn from mundane everyday activity: the incompleteness, inaccuracy and dispersed nature of personal self-tracking data; the data cleaning and repair processes of Big Data analysis and how data can turn into noise and vice versa when they are transduced into sound within practices of music production and sound art.
Abstract: In this article, we introduce and demonstrate the concept-metaphor of broken data. In doing so, we advance critical discussions of digital data by accounting for how data might be in processes of decay, making, repair, re-making and growth, which are inextricable from the ongoing forms of creativity that stem from everyday contingencies and improvisatory human activity. We build and demonstrate our argument through three examples drawn from mundane everyday activity: the incompleteness, inaccuracy and dispersed nature of personal self-tracking data; the data cleaning and repair processes of Big Data analysis and how data can turn into noise and vice versa when they are transduced into sound within practices of music production and sound art. This, we argue is a necessary step for considering the meaning and implications of data as it is increasingly mobilised in ways that impact society and our everyday worlds.

143 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A recent report from the UN makes the case for "global data literacy" in order to realize the opportunities afforded by the data revolution as mentioned in this paper, which is the case in many other contexts.
Abstract: A recent report from the UN makes the case for “global data literacy” in order to realise the opportunities afforded by the “data revolution”. Here and in many other contexts, data literacy is char...

121 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the onto-epistemological dimensions of human-human interactions are discussed. But the authors focus on the use of digital technologies that generate information with and about their bodies and everyday lives.
Abstract: Humans have become increasingly datafied with the use of digital technologies that generate information with and about their bodies and everyday lives. The onto-epistemological dimensions of human–...

117 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The bureaucratic roots of Big Data and algorithms are traced to examine the institutional dependencies that emerge and are mediated through data-driven and algorithmic logics, shedding light on how organizational contexts are embedded into algorithms, which can then become embedded within other organizational and individual practices.
Abstract: Algorithms and data-driven technologies are increasingly being embraced by a variety of different sectors and institutions. This paper examines how algorithms and data-driven technologies, enacted ...

112 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that data do not speak for themselves and must be narrated, narrated in particular contexts, sunk into narratives that give them shape and meaning, and mobilized as part of broader processes of inte
Abstract: Data do not speak for themselves Data must be narrated—put to work in particular contexts, sunk into narratives that give them shape and meaning, and mobilized as part of broader processes of inte

99 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In recent years, all major consumer technology corporations have moved into the domain of health research as discussed by the authors, and this "Googlization of Health Research" (GHR) begs the question of how the common good wi...
Abstract: In recent years, all major consumer technology corporations have moved into the domain of health research. This ‘Googlization of health research’ (‘GHR’) begs the question of how the common good wi...

94 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: What data presence means for the ways that the everyday is organised, sensed, and anticipated is explored in what forms of hope and trust enable this value to further develop.
Abstract: Digital data is an increasing and continual presence across the sites, activities and relationships of everyday life. In this article we explore what data presence means for the ways that the everyday is organised, sensed, and anticipated. While digital data studies have demonstrated how data is deeply entangled with the way in which everyday life is lived out and valued, at the same time our relationships with data are riddled with anxieties or small niggles or tricky trade-offs and their use is often chaotic and muddled, part of the inevitable uncertainty about what will happen next. If the presence of data is part of the environments we inhabit, this raises the question of how and why data is valuable to us and what forms of hope and trust enable this value to further develop.

83 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the embedding of data producing technologies in people's everyday lives and practices, and trace how repeated encounters with digital data operate to naturalise these entities.
Abstract: This paper explores the embedding of data producing technologies in people's everyday lives and practices. It traces how repeated encounters with digital data operate to naturalise these entities, ...

62 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Joanna Redden1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the case for greater government transparency and accountability about uses of big data through a Government of Canada qualitative research case study and employ counter-mapping to map government big data practices and internal discussions of risk and challenge.
Abstract: There is an abundance of enthusiasm and optimism about how governments at all levels can make use of big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence. There is also growing concern about the risks that come with these new systems. This article makes the case for greater government transparency and accountability about uses of big data through a Government of Canada qualitative research case study. Adapting a method from critical cartographers, I employ counter-mapping to map government big data practices and internal discussions of risk and challenge. I do so by drawing on interviews and freedom of information requests. The analysis reveals that there are more concerns and risks than often publicly discussed and that there are significant areas of silence that need greater attention. The article underlines the need for our democratic systems to respond to our new datafied contexts by ensuring that our institutions make changes to better protect citizen rights, uphold democratic principles and ensure means for citizen intervention

50 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Although overarching if not foundational conceptualizations of digital governance in the field of critical data studies aptly account for and explain subjection, calculated resistance is left conce... as mentioned in this paper, the authors of this paper.
Abstract: Although overarching if not foundational conceptualizations of digital governance in the field of critical data studies aptly account for and explain subjection, calculated resistance is left conce...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A case study of the data storage, sharing, and management platform Figshare is presented, showing that Figshare leverages the platform logic of core and complementary components to re-integrate a presently splintered scholarly infrastructure.
Abstract: Web-based platforms play an increasingly important role in managing and sharing research data of all types and sizes. This article presents a case study of the data storage, sharing, and management...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For years, attempts at ensuring the social sustainability of digital solutions have focused on ensuring that they are perceived as helpful and easy to use as mentioned in this paper, and a smooth and seamless work experience has...
Abstract: For years, attempts at ensuring the social sustainability of digital solutions have focused on ensuring that they are perceived as helpful and easy to use. A smooth and seamless work experience has...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In recent years, the healthcare field welcomed an emerging field of practices captured under the umbrella term "Big Data" as mentioned in this paper, which is surrounded with positive rhetoric and promises about the abil...
Abstract: In recent years, the healthcare field welcomed an emerging field of practices captured under the umbrella term ‘Big Data’. This term is surrounded with positive rhetoric and promises about the abil...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A concept of “datastructuring” is provided which seeks to capture this reshaping as both a product of and productive of social activity and may help to better understand the novel ways in which “backstage datawork” and “data sorting processes” gain traction in political interventions, commercial processes, and social ordering.
Abstract: Digital transformations and processes of “datafication” fundamentally reshape how information is produced, circulated and given meaning. In this article, we provide a concept of “datastructuring” w...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explores the possibility to identify micro groups of users, which can potentially be targeted with special campaign messages, and how this approach can be expanded to large parts of the electorate, and discusses the ethical and political implications for the German political system.
Abstract: Amongst other methods, political campaigns employ microtargeting, a specific technique used to address the individual voter. In the US, microtargeting relies on a broad set of collected data about ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explores ways of developing the critical consciousness and resistant practices of young mobile media users towards personal data, and describes efforts to make representations of third party use of personal data openly available as a basis from which to develop data-savvy tactics and strategies.
Abstract: Large amounts of personal data are generated through young people’s engagements with mobile media, with these data increasingly (re)used by advertisers, content developers and other third parties t...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the contemporary discussion on the epistemological and ontological effects of Big Data within social science, observing an increased focus on relationality and complexity, and a focus on complexity and relationality.
Abstract: This paper reviews the contemporary discussion on the epistemological and ontological effects of Big Data within social science, observing an increased focus on relationality and complexity, and a ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors document the counter-data action and data activism of a grassroots affordable housing advocacy group in Atlanta, and their observation and insight into these data activities and strateg...
Abstract: In this paper, we document the counter-data action and data activism of a grassroots affordable housing advocacy group in Atlanta. Our observation and insight into these data activities and strateg...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A methodological framework based on the cognitivist linguistics terminology of ‘blending’ is developed and two cases are explored in which blended spaces are crafted from engaging big and thick analytical insights with each other.
Abstract: Recent works have suggested an analytical complementarity in mixing big and thick data sources. These works have, however, remained as programmatic suggestions, leaving us with limited methodologic...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a robotic vacuum cleaner is used to transform the ordinary, such as snapshots along a robot vacuum cleaner's route, into something more complex, like a map of the environment.
Abstract: Algorithms are powerful because we invest in them the power to do things. With such promise, they can transform the ordinary, say snapshots along a robotic vacuum cleaner’s route, into something mu...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This special theme contextualizes, examines, and ultimately works to dispel the feelings of "sublime" that much of the contemporary public discours... as mentioned in this paper, which is the feeling of awe and terror that overrides rational thought.
Abstract: This special theme contextualizes, examines, and ultimately works to dispel the feelings of “sublime”—of awe and terror that overrides rational thought—that much of the contemporary public discours...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The access to big social media data, however, is controlled by companies that privilege corporate, governmental, and private research firms as mentioned in this paper, which is a problem for big data research.
Abstract: Social media offers an attractive site for Big Data research. Access to big social media data, however, is controlled by companies that privilege corporate, governmental, and private research firms...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an analysis of interviews, focus groups and workshops with employees in the technical administration in the municipality of Copenhagen in the year after it won a prestigious Sma...
Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of interviews, focus groups and workshops with employees in the technical administration in the municipality of Copenhagen in the year after it won a prestigious Sma...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study provides a method to upgrade individual detail in terms of ethnicity in data gathered from social media via the use of register data, and finds that this method provides the most conservative tests of hypotheses.
Abstract: Social scientists increasingly use (big) social media data to illuminate long-standing substantive questions in social science research. However, a key challenge of analyzing such data is their low...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the story of Sciences Po Medialab is discussed and completed by demonstrating the in-depth history of laboratories in social sciences, and the authors conclude that the history of social sciences may become controversial in social science.
Abstract: The history of laboratories may become controversial in social sciences. In this paper, the story of Sciences Po Medialab told by Venturini et al. is discussed and completed by demonstrating the in...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that analyses of the ways in which Big Data has been enacted in other academic disciplines can provide us with concepts that will help understand the application of Big Data to social questions.
Abstract: This paper argues that analyses of the ways in which Big Data has been enacted in other academic disciplines can provide us with concepts that will help understand the application of Big Data to social questions. We use examples drawn from our Science and Technology Studies (STS) analyses of -omic biology and high energy physics to demonstrate the utility of three theoretical concepts: (i) primary and secondary inscriptions, (ii) crafted and found data, and (iii) the locus of legitimate interpretation. These help us to show how the histories, organisational forms, and power dynamics of a field lead to different enactments of big data. The paper suggests that these concepts can be used to help us to understand the ways in which Big Data is being enacted in the domain of the social sciences, and to outline in general terms the ways in which this enactment might be different to that which we have observed in the ‘hard’ sciences. We contend that the locus of legitimate interpretation of Big Data biology and physics is tightly delineated, found within the disciplinary institutions and cultures of these disciplines. We suggest that when using Big Data to make knowledge claims about ‘the social’ the locus of legitimate interpretation is more diffuse, with knowledge claims that are treated as being credible made from other disciplines, or even by those outside academia entirely.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that whilst through becoming Big Data electricity flow is now able to be known and given identity in significantly new terms, enabling new relations to be formed with the many heterogeneous entities implicated in making and managing energy demand, it is necessary to sustain some ambivalence as to the performative consequences that follow for energy governance.
Abstract: Electricity is hidden within wires and networks only revealing its quantity and flow when metered. The making of its properties into data is therefore particularly important to the relations that are formed around electricity as a produced and managed phenomenon. We propose approaching all metering as a situated activity, a form of quantification work in which data is made and becomes mobile in particular spatial and temporal terms, enabling its entry into data infrastructures and schemes of evaluation and value production. We interrogate the transition from the pre-digital into the making of bigger, more spatiotemporally granular electricity data, through focusing on those actors selling and materialising new metering technologies, data infrastructures and services for larger businesses and public sector organisations in the UK. We examine the claims of truth and visibility that accompany these shifts and their enrolment into management techniques that serve to more precisely apportion responsibility for...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argues that there must be other ways of doing quali-quantitative methods, and develops a novel data visualisation called the modulation sequencer which depicts the spread of URLs over time and retains many of the key features of networks identified above.
Abstract: Although the rapid growth of digital data and computationally advanced methods in the social sciences has in many ways exacerbated tensions between the so-called ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ ap...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a re-turn of narrative as a form of knowledge productio... is presented. But it is based on case material obtained from companies such as Arria NLG, Automated Insights, Narrativa, Narrative Science, and Yseop.
Abstract: With slogans such as ‘Tell the stories hidden in your data’ (www.narrativescience.com) and ‘From data to clear, insightful content – Wordsmith automatically generates narratives on a massive scale that sound like a person crafted each one’ (www.automatedinsights.com), a series of companies currently market themselves on the ability to turn data into stories through Natural Language Generation (NLG) techniques. The data interpretation and knowledge production process is here automated, while at the same time hailing narrativity as a fundamental human ability of meaning-making. Reading both the marketing rhetoric and the functionality of the automated narrative services through narrative theory allows for a contextualization of the rhetoric flourishing in Big Data discourse. Building upon case material obtained from companies such as Arria NLG, Automated Insights, Narrativa, Narrative Science, and Yseop, this article argues that what might be seen as a ‘re-turn’ of narrative as a form of knowledge productio...