Big data, little history

Barnes, Trevor J.

doi:10.1177/2043820613514323

Cited by 101 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…boyd and Crawford's article, cited above, is one example. and various contributions to a special issue of First Monday on big data (such as Baym, 2013 andBoellstorff, 2013) provide further critique, highlighting the making and shaping of digital data through methods (see also Barnes, 2013 andGitelman andJackson, 2013).…”

Section: Digital Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balancing the potential and problems of digital methods through action research: methodological reflections

Kennedy

Moss

Birchall

et al. 2014

Information, Communication & Society

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This paper reports on an action research project with public sector organisations in the UK which experimented with a range of digital methods (social media data mining, social network and issue network mapping, data visualisation), in order to explore their potential usefulness for the public engagement activities of these organisations. We argue that there is a need for small-scale, qualitative studies of cultures of large-scale, quantitative data like ours, to open up spaces in which to reflect critically on the methods with which such data is produced. However, in the paper we highlight the difficulties we had enacting through action research a commitment to both the potential (which might be seen as the action part of action research) and the problems (which might be seen as the research part of action research) of digital methods. Following Hammersley (2002), we suggest that an equal balance between action and research may always be difficult to sustain, in both action research and the use of digital methods. Despite this, we argue that critical discussion of digital methods needs to extend beyond academic spacesthrough this move, we suggest, we might open up a space in which to reflect on how these methods might be used for the public good.

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Section: Digital Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balancing the potential and problems of digital methods through action research: methodological reflections

Kennedy

Moss

Birchall

et al. 2014

Information, Communication & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, Manovich (2011) highlights the differences between 'deep data' about a few cases and 'surface data' about a large number of cases. Much of the depth that is lacking from digital data could be argued to include issues of historical context and connections with past events, individualist and humanist accounts of the social, and an underpinning sense of moral knowledge (see Barnes 2013;Ruppert 2013).…”

Section: Digital Data and The Reductive Nature Of 'What Counts' As 'Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Data entry: towards the critical study of digital data and education

Selwyn

2014

Learning, Media and Technology

237

171

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The generation and processing of data through digital technologies is an integral element of contemporary society, as reflected in recent debates over online data privacy, 'Big Data' and the rise of data mining and analytics in business, science and government. This paper outlines the significance of digital data within education, arguing for increased interest in the topic from educational researchers. Building on themes from the emerging sub-field of 'digital sociology', the paper outlines a number of ways in which digital data in education could be questioned along social lines. These include issues of data inequalities, the role of data in managerialist modes of organisation and control, the rise of so-called 'dataveillance' and the reductionist nature of data-based representation. The paper concludes with a set of suggestions for future research and discussion, thus outlining the beginnings of a framework for the future critical study of digital data and education.

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“…In particular, it illustrates several of the principles of ''critical data studies'' (boyd and Crawford 2012; Dalton and Thatcher 2014). Despite the push-back against Big Data as being less effectual than its grandiose claims (e.g., Anderson 2008), the forgetfulness of its own history (Barnes 2014), and the need to avoid reifying it, Big Data has nevertheless been part of two key questions that are explicitly evidenced by the intelligence community: reconceptualizations of privacy as geopolitical assemblage, and ''algorithmic security. ''…”

Section: Paradoxes Of Big Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Collect it all: national security, Big Data and governance

Crampton

2014

GeoJournal

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This paper is a case study of complications of Big Data. The case study draws from the US intelligence community, but the issues are applicable on a wide scale to Big Data. There are two ways Big Data are making a big impact: a reconceptualization of (geo)privacy, and ''algorithmic security.'' Geoprivacy is revealed as a geopolitical assemblage rather than something possessed and is part of emerging political economy of technology and neoliberal markets. Security has become increasingly algorithmic and biometric, enrolling Big Data to disambiguate the biopolitical subject. Geoweb and remote sensing technologies, companies, and knowledges are imbricated in this assemblage of algorithmic security. I conclude with three spaces of intervention; new critical histories of the geoweb that trace the relationship of geography and the state; a fuller political economy of the geoweb and its circulations of geographical knowledge; and legislative and encryption efforts that enable the geographic community to participate in public debate.

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Big data, little history

Cited by 101 publications

References 8 publications

Balancing the potential and problems of digital methods through action research: methodological reflections

Balancing the potential and problems of digital methods through action research: methodological reflections

Data entry: towards the critical study of digital data and education

Collect it all: national security, Big Data and governance

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