[Air-L] Anyone interested in a panel on "data cooperatives"?

[Alexander Halavais]

Hello, Aoirers,

We have been looking to pull together some papers around "data
cooperatives" and other uses of data aggregation "from below" into a panel
before the rapidly-approaching deadline for the next conference. If you are
working on a topic that might fit with this form of data activism, we'd
love to hear from you! There is a drafty version of our panel intro
below...

Best,

Alex


Data cooperatives: Toward a datafication from below

Alexander Halavais (ASU) & Alejandro Alvarado Rojas (USC)

For most, the word “datafication” connotes structures of hierarchical
power: the process of making the textured everyday into something
measurable, consumable, and controllable by overarching structures of
political and economic power—with good reason (Kitchin, 2014). It is easy
to find examples of the ways in which corporations and governments have
made use of data as a means of control. Even outside of this, the kinds of
accumulation that standardization of data permit makes it a resource that
is easily bent toward reification of existing systems of exploitation and
control.

There are critics who see all forms of ICTs as inherently serving these
same ends, but we have now accumulated enough models of resistance and
change to see that neither the “information imperialism” (e.g., Schiller,
1991) nor the “computer lib” (e.g., Nelson, 1974) extremes envisioned in
the early days of networking entirely came to pass. The reality was much
more complicated. The question becomes whether there are parallel examples
of peer-based and collaborative data sharing that might be applied to the
process of datafication, in areas as diverse as education, smart cities,
the structure of labor, and the place of citizenship. While there are
relatively clear examples of ways in which new networked technologies have
been used to resist certain kinds of powerful political and economic
structures, there are relatively fewer examples of datafication—the
encoding of everyday activities into measurable quanta—being used
pro-socially.

Milan, & Velden (2016) provide several examples of these, drawing on genres
of “proactive data activism,” to show how individuals and groups, rather
than refusal, deploy data collection and dissemination practices as an
alternative form of resistance. This panel seeks to explore examples and
prototypes of peer-based accumulation, networking, and sharing of data.
What does it mean to share data within a community? What different kinds of
problems exist around negotiating access, controlling misuse, and creative
re-use of collective data? Are there models here worthy of replication,
patterns of datafication that provide the sources of that data with more
control and autonomy? How do cooperation, collaboration, and similar
collective dynamics redefine the value and nature of data? How can
marginalized experiences with data inform more just and equitable data
sharing models? How are such models feasible and sustainable?

Cited

Kitchin, R. (2014). The data revolution: Big data, open data, data
infrastructures and their consequences. SAGE.

Milan, S., & Velden, L. V. D. (2016). The alternative epistemologies of
data activism. Digital culture & society, 2(2), 57-74.

Nelson, T. H. (1974). Computer lib: You can and must understand computers
now.

Schiller, H. I. (1991). Not yet the post‐imperialist era. Critical Studies
in Media Communication, 8(1), 13-28.


-- 
// Alexander Halavais (he/him)   @halavais      alex.halavais.net
// Associate Professor of Social Data Science  socialdatasci.org
// New College, Arizona State University          theprof at asu.edu
<http://asu.edu/>