[Air-L] CfP Conference Political epistemologies of Big Data (Berlin)

[Lena Ulbricht]

Call for Papers for the Conference „Scraping the Demos“: Political 
epistemologies of Big Data

Organizers: Research Group Quantification and Social Regulation 
(Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society) and DVPW Thematic Group 
“Internet and Politics. Electronic Governance”

Date: 8-9 July 2019 (lunch-to-lunch)

Conference location: WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Reichpietschufer 
50, D-10785 Berlin, Germany

Responsible: Dr. Lena Ulbricht lena.ulbricht at wzb.eu

The conference explores political epistemologies of big data. Political 
epistemologies are practices by which societies construct politically 
relevant knowledge and the criteria by which they evaluate it. These 
practices and criteria may originate in scientific, political, cultural, 
religious, and economic contexts. They evolve over time, vary between 
sectors, are inherently political and therefore subject to conflict. Big 
data is the practice of deriving socially relevant knowledge from 
massive and diverse digital trace data. The rise of digital technologies 
in all social spheres has enabled new epistemic practices which have 
important political implications: Political elites see digital 
technologies as sources of new and better tools for learning about the 
citizenry, for increasing political responsiveness and for improving the 
effectiveness of policies.

Practices such as “big data analysis”, “web scraping”, “opinion mining”, 
“sentiment analysis”, “predictive analytics”, and “nowcasting” seem to 
be common currency in the public and academic debate about the present 
and future of evidence-based policy making and representative democracy. 
Data mining and web scraping, techniques to access information “hidden” 
behind the user interface of a website or device, seem to establish 
themselves as epistemic practices with political implications. They 
generate knowledge about populations and the citizenry which diverge in 
many ways from previous ways of “seeing” and constructing the demos. 
Data that is based on digital collection tools is often much more 
personal, it can relate different kinds of information and in many cases 
offer an improved predictive capability. Therefore, survey methods and 
traditional administrative data may lose influence on political 
epistemologies. To rely on big data means to rely on data sources that 
accumulate information without awareness of the concerned individuals. 
This epistemic shift can be observed in policy advice, government and 
administration, and political campaigning. Emerging research strands 
such as “computational social sciences,” “social physics,” “policy 
analytics”, “policy informatics”, and “policy simulations” strive for 
better evidence, more transparency and responsiveness in policy making 
and governments such as in the UK, or, as in Australia, have set up 
strategies of “open policy making”, “agile policy making” and “public 
service big data”.

Political parties and advocacy groups use digital data to address 
citizens and muster support in a targeted manner; public authorities try 
to tailor public policy to public sentiment measured-online, forecast 
and prevent events (as in predictive policing, preemptive security and 
predictive healthcare), and continuously adapt policies based on 
real-time monitoring. An entire industry of policy consultants and 
technology companies thrives on the promise related to the political 
power of digital data and analytics. And finally, academic research 
engages in digitally enhanced computational social sciences, digital 
methods and social physics on the basis of digital trace data, machine 
learning and computer simulations. The political implications of these 
epistemic practices have yet to be examined in detail. Indeed, the rise 
of digital technologies in all social spheres may alter the relations 
between citizens and political elites in various ways: it could improve, 
impoverish (or simply change) political participation, policy 
transparency, accountability of political elites and, and decision-making.

The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars from various 
related disciplines working on the topic, including, but not limited to: 
political communication, elections and party politics, science and 
technology studies, political theory, history, sociology and philosophy 
of science, critical data studies and computational social sciences. 
These fields of research have addressed various aspects related to 
political epistemologies in the digital age – but there have been only 
few opportunities to relate them, to compare similar practices in 
different fields (for example in public policy and in political 
campaigning) and to examine the broader picture in order to generate 
theories about the political epistemologies of big data, algorithms and 
artificial intelligence. Contributions can be both, conceptual or empirical.

The conference is interested in research concerning the following 
questions and similar topics:
•	What are the political epistemologies underlying the use of big data 
and related phenomena such as algorithms, machine learning and 
artificial intelligence in political contexts?
•	Which scientific, political, social and economic practices make use of 
digital data and methods? How do these practices construct knowledge 
which is deemed as politically relevant?  By which 
(rhetoric/procedural/technical) means do these practices and the actors 
involved substantiate their claims to political relevance?
•	What insights can we gain from the computational social sciences in 
relation to traditional social science methods when it comes to 
political behavior, public opinion, policy making etc.?
•	How are digitally mediated political epistemologies related to other 
political epistemologies? How are they embedded in institutional 
practices and values?
•	Which interpretive conflicts do we witness with regard to the 
knowledge produced and legitimized by digital technologies; which are 
its major challengers? In which ways do epistemic practices based on big 
data, compared to other epistemic practices, influence the chances for 
challenging political knowledge claims?
•	How can we place political epistemologies in a historical or cultural 
perspective?
•	What are the implications of digitally mediated political 
epistemologies for evidence-based policy making and for representative 
democracy? Which conceptions of participation, representation and good 
governance are embedded in the related practices? How do big 
data-related epistemic practices reconfigure democratic concepts? Do we 
witness a new form of technocracy?
•	How should democratic societies shape and regulate big-data-based 
epistemic practices? Which contributions can we expect from algorithmic 
accountability, data protection and research ethics?
The conference will provide academic reflections to current public 
debates about the state of democracy in the digital age, considering 
that in 2019 various elections take place in German speaking countries, 
at the level of the European Parliament and within the German federal 
states of Bremen, Hamburg, Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, as well as 
in Austria and Switzerland (regional and federal level). The keynote 
will be held by professor Daniel Kreiss, the author of a seminal book 
about the use of data-related practices in political campaigning 
(“Prototype Politics” 2016). The conference will also include artistic 
interventions and a lab.

The conference will offer childcare, will be video-recorded, and held in 
English. If the funding application is successful, the travel costs of 
paper presenters will be covered. The organizers plan on following up 
the conference with a publication project.

Abstracts should make explicit on which theories, methods and, if 
applicable, empirical material the paper is based. Please send your 
abstract of 300-500 words until February 24 to the following address: 
demosscraping-weizenbaum at wzb.eu

Preliminary program structure
8 July 2019
14.00	Welcome address
14.15	Keynote by professor Daniel Kreiss + discussion
15.30	Coffee
16.00	Paper presentations
17.30	Lab and art exhibition
18.30 	Reception
9 July 2019
9.00	Paper presentations
10.30	Coffee
11.00	Paper presentations
12.30 	Paper presentations or panel discussion
14.00	Ending

-- 
Dr. Lena Ulbricht

Research Group Leader
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society
WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Forschungsgruppenleiterin
Weizenbaum Institut für die Vernetzte Gesellschaft
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)

Hardenbergstr. 32
D-10623 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: +49-(0)30-700 141 077
Email: lena.ulbricht at wzb.eu