[Air-L] Article on data arenas and environmental data activism

[Bartosz Ślosarski]

Dear All,

I have recently published article titled "Data Arenas: The Relational
Dynamics of Data Activism" in the journal *Big Data and Society*, which you
can find here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517231177617

The article may be of interest to researchers studying datafication, data
activism, data contexts, and political ecology of data. Therefore, I have
allowed myself to share the information about the article through the AoIR
newsletter (although I sincerely apologize for the cross-posting!).

Abstract: *The article proposes the theoretical category of data arenas as
a relational field for strategic actors in diverse areas of the contentious
politics of data (Beraldo and Milan, 2019). The paper argues that the
conceptualization of data activism needs to be related to the immediate
data arena in which the action takes place, in order to select the
interactive opportunities and threats for emerging data-driven repertoires
of action. To fully work through the relational dynamics of data activism,
it is necessary to move from a conceptualization of data infrastructure to
the notion of data arenas as an ‘open-ended bundle of rules and resources
that allows certain kinds of interaction to proceed’ (Jasper, 2006: 141).
Using the case of environmental data activism, I highlight four key
dimensions to study: (a) strategic use of data as capital that
differentiates and positions actors, as well as influences their further
choices; (b) practices of defining the boundaries of the problem on which
the arena focuses and outlining the pool of actors who participate in the
process of solving it; (3) sets of relationships among the outlined pool of
actors which represent opportunities and threats for the actors, related to
the position they occupy within an arena; and (4) power as the ability to
control and shape an arena. Data arena approach shed new light on data
activism as a relational practice, combining the latest developments in
research on data contexts and the political situatedness of data with the
emerging field of research on data activism.*

Best,
Bartosz Ślosarski


-- 
*Bartosz Ślosarski*
PhD Candidate in Sociology
University of Warsaw
Homepage <https://ws.uw.edu.pl/zespol/slosarski-bartosz/> | ResearchGate
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bartosz-Slosarski> | Twitter
<https://twitter.com/slosarski>