Data
Definitions
Data is a collection of discrete values.
The data are recordings of observations or events in a scientific study. We call obtained data the sample, the sample data, or simply the data, and all possible samples from a study are collected in a sample space.
Philosophy of Statistics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Without an interpretative framework, data are streams of meaningless numbers. We can call such frameworks models. They can be conceptual or quantitative.
Thompson, Erica. Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It. New York: Basic Books, 2022.
Kitchin, Rob. The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures and Their Consequences. 2nd ed. 2014. Reprint, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2021.
Data Studies
Disciplines and approaches to critical and political analysis of data and information including data ethics.
- Digital geographies
- Critical data studies 1
- Platform studies
- Political ecology of data, focus on history and place 2
- Political ecology of truth
- Data colonisation
- Data lives
- Digital governance (subjection vs resistance; productive resistance vs avoidance, disruption or obfuscation) 3
Algorithmic audience, the idea that existing algorithms construct audiences as well as constrain messages online in the human domains. This can potentially be even more prevalent in application to nonhuman lifeforms whose lives have to be mediated by structured observations and data.
Political/Ethical/Justice Implications
Pritchard, Rose, Laura Aileen Sauls, Johan A. Oldekop, Wilhelm Andrew Kiwango, and Dan Brockington. ‘Data Justice and Biodiversity Conservation’. Conservation Biology 36, no. 5 (2022): e13919. https://doi.org/10/gqcgrq.
Urzedo, Danilo, Michelle Westerlaken, and Jennifer Gabrys. ‘Digitalizing Forest Landscape Restoration: A Social and Political Analysis of Emerging Technological Practices’. Environmental Politics 32, no. 3 (2023): 485–510. https://doi.org/10/gq4d26.
Smart governance:
‘More-Than-Human Smart Urban Governance: A Research Agenda’. Digital Geography and Society 4 (2023): 100045. https://doi.org/10/gscb6b.
Ślosarski, Bartosz. ‘Data Arenas: The Relational Dynamics of Data Activism’. Big Data & Society 10, no. 1 (2023): 20539517231177616. https://doi.org/10/gscb6d.
Roudavski, Stanislav, and Gwyllim Jahn. ‘Activist Systems: Futuring With Living Models’. International Journal of Architectural Computing 14, no. 2 (2016): 182–96. https://doi.org/10/gfsp7x.
Footnotes
Iliadis, Andrew, and Federica Russo. ‘Critical Data Studies: An Introduction’. Big Data & Society 3, no. 2 (2016): 2053951716674238. https://doi.org/10/gcd6rw. Also: Richterich, Annika. The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies. London: University of Westminster Press, 2018.˄
Nost, Eric, and Jenny Elaine Goldstein. ‘A Political Ecology of Data’. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 5, no. 1 (2022): 3–17. https://doi.org/10/gmxgtk.˄
Ettlinger, Nancy. ‘Algorithmic Affordances for Productive Resistance’. Big Data & Society 5, no. 1 (2018): 2053951718771399. https://doi.org/10/gffkth.˄
Backlinks