Data and Society
- Length: 400 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc
- Publication Date: 2021-08-11
- ISBN-10: 9811237247
- ISBN-13: 9789811237249
- Sales Rank: #2107717 (See Top 100 Books)
“Most literature thinks of the relationship between data and society as additive, meaning that data and society are seen as two separate sets of things but which overlap to form an intersection. The literature then goes off to unpack the intersection of the two circles and partners the term data in this manner with terms descriptive of the domain of society – ownership, control, surveillance, and privacy, to name but a few. Within this book, we want to promote an alternative viewpoint of the relationshipbetween data and society. Rather than explaining how data fits with or contributes to some burning societal issues, we want to explain how data is constitutive of many such issues. The term constitutive is used here in the sense of data having power to institute, establish, or enact society. Our viewpoint means that if you are to properly understand the constitutive nature of data, you must first start from principles and closely examine the nature of data itself. You must also focus on the mechanics of data – how data is represented and articulated in records or more generally in data structures. Our aim in doing this is to examine the place of data structures across cultures and societies. In doing so, we hope to better understand why we, as humans, make records. In doing this, we can also better understand some of the unintended consequences of the use of records, which particularly plague us in the modern world”–
Contents About the Author List of Figures List of Tables Prologue The Data and Society Mix The Centrality of Records Records are Boring Sensemaking and Sensebreaking with Records Our Mission A Short Exercise in Sensebreaking A Quick Overview of the Book Chapter 1: Making Marks — The Materiality of the Record Chapter 2: Data Structures Chapter 3: Identifying Things — The Informativity of the Record Chapter 4: Making Lists — The Performativity of the Record Chapter 5: Coordination Problems Chapter 6: The ‘Life’ of the Record Chapter 7: Instituting Place, Product, Time and Digital Presence Chapter 8: Building Ontology Chapter 9: The Power of Records Chapter 10: Scaffolding Commerce Chapter 11: Data-Driven Actors Chapter 12: The Mechanics of Echo Chambers Chapter 13: The Modern Panopticon — Data and Surveillance Chapter 14: Counting Heads Chapter 15: A Social Ontology of Big Data Chapter 1 Making Marks Introduction Neolithic Data The Externalisation of Things Actors Structures Messages Actions Making Differences Through Structures The Modulation of Matter or Energy The Patterning of Structures Natural, Embodied and Persistent Structures Natural structures Embodied structures Persistent structures Individual and Collective Memory Sumerian Clay Tokens The Rise and Rise of Data Conclusion References Chapter 2 Data Structures Introduction Data Structures The Inka Khipu Articulation of Data Structures Persistent and Non-persistent Data Structures Sender and receivers Materiality Articulation Forgetting Actors Time and space Agency Signalling Games Coding Things Data Structures and the Inka State Reversing the Ontological Status of Data Structures Conclusion References Chapter 3 Identifying Things: The Informativity of the Record Introduction The Notion of a Sign The Identifier Status Functions, Signs and Institutional Facts What is an Institution? Personal Identity Criminal Identification in the British Raj Personal Identifiers The Web of Personal Identity Forms of Personal Identifier Biometrics Conclusion References Chapter 4 Making Lists: The Performativity of the Record Introduction An Infinity of Lists The Idea of Lists Lists Matter Listing Quality Listing the Holocaust Scaffolding the Institutional Order Speech Acts The Performativity of Lists Textual Agency Shortlisting, Blacklisting, Whitelisting and Watchlisting The Ownership of Data Conclusion References Chapter 5 Coordination Problems Introduction Coordination Problems Kanban Scrumban Managing the Semiotics of the Workplace Designing Data Structures with Coordination in Mind Conclusion References Chapter 6 The ‘Life’ of the Record Introduction Institutional Facts and Social Ontology The Scaffolding of Lists Data Breakdowns Identifying the wrong things Describing things inappropriately Asserting things that cannot be confirmed Committing to things that never happen Directing people to do the wrong things Vital Signs Body temperature Heart rate Blood pressure Consciousness Respiratory rate Blood oxygen level The Informative and Performative Nature of a Vital Signs Chart The Typical Lifecycle of the Record Key Principles Data and abstraction Informing Articulation and communication Design Data systems Data Privacy and Data Protection The right to be informed The right of access The right to rectification The right to erasure The right to restrict processing The right to data portability The right to object Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling Conclusion References Chapter 7 Instituting Place, Product, Time and Digital Presence Introduction The Notion of a Register and Registry Identifying Place Identifying Products Identifying Events Identifying Digital Presence Data Sharing Conclusion References Chapter 8 Building Ontology Introduction Objects Classification and Instantiation Attribution and Association Valuing an Object and Forming an Object Class Association Generalisation and Specialisation Aggregation and Decomposition Institutional Ontology Metadata The Metadata of the Web The Sharing of Documentation Between Institutions Conclusion References Chapter 9 The Power of Records Introduction Domesday Book — The Book of the Day of Judgement Ontology and Deontology The Deontology of Data Structures Revisiting Domesday The Control of Data Conclusion References Chapter 10 Scaffolding Commerce Introduction The Notion of Commerce Money as a Status Function Transactions Transaction Costs The Ledger as a Data Structure Digital Currency The Blockchain Disintermediation Through the Blockchain Data Security Conclusion References Chapter 11 Data-Driven Actors Introduction Decisions and Control Decisions and Communication Decision Strategies AI and Mind Weak AI Data-Driven AI The Opacity of Decisions Insidious Actors The Google Search Engine Conclusion References Chapter 12 The Mechanics of Echo Chambers Introduction What is Social Media? Digital Content Social Networks Types of Communication in a Social Network The Value of Social Networks and Social Media Memes Truth and Lies Fake News Echo Chambers, Online Cliques and the Decline in Civil Society Conclusion References Chapter 13 The Modern Panopticon: Data and Surveillance Introduction Station X and Y The Enigma Machine Data Interception and Articulation The Keeping of Records The Contribution of Station X and Y The Surveillance Society Personal Traces Surveillance Capitalism Conclusion References Chapter 14 Counting Heads Introduction Data Structures and Statistics Population and Sample Brute Facts and Institutional Facts A Cautionary Tale — Durkheim and Suicide Counting COVID-19 Data Science Conclusion References Chapter 15 A Social Ontology of Big Data Introduction What is Big Data? The Conventional Ontology of Data and Data Structures Scaffolding Big Data Re-examining the Features of Big Data Data resolution Data relatability Data flexibility Data structure Data indexicality Data exhaustivity Conclusion References Epilogue Revisiting Our Aims The Central Theory Information situations The formative aspect of a data structure Data structures Acts of articulation The life history of data structures The informative aspect of a data structure The performative aspect of a data structure Cycle of enactment Scaffolding institutions Institutional facts Deontology of data structures Breakdowns with data structures Three Examples Domains An Institution Is… References Bibliography Index
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