Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies
Critiques of data colonialism and surveillance capitalism focus on data collected from online behavior. We propose that analytical concepts from these critiques—namely, regimes of value and patterns of alienation and attunement —could be applied more widely to better understand the threats that data...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231184891 |
| _version_ | 1797793701853921280 |
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| author | Gwen Ottinger Kelly Bronson Dawn Nafus |
| author_facet | Gwen Ottinger Kelly Bronson Dawn Nafus |
| author_sort | Gwen Ottinger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Critiques of data colonialism and surveillance capitalism focus on data collected from online behavior. We propose that analytical concepts from these critiques—namely, regimes of value and patterns of alienation and attunement —could be applied more widely to better understand the threats that datafication poses to equity and democracy in the social and environmental realms. Regimes of value, which include the institutions and technologies that make data meaningful and render them selectively available for appropriation, are relevant both to for-profit companies’ data practices and to states’ participation in the datafication of the environment; examining regimes of value raises questions about how data are exploited and how they are neglected. Patterns of alienation associated with datafication include the potential for alienation from the environment; however, at least in some value regimes, alienation may be accompanied by possibilities for attunement to natural and social phenomena that might otherwise have escaped notice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:51:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-024055381d0f48b7abdb522db7169860 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T02:51:05Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-024055381d0f48b7abdb522db71698602023-06-28T11:03:34ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172023-01-011010.1177/20539517231184891Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studiesGwen Ottinger0Kelly Bronson1Dawn Nafus2 School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada Intel Labs, Hillsboro, OR, USACritiques of data colonialism and surveillance capitalism focus on data collected from online behavior. We propose that analytical concepts from these critiques—namely, regimes of value and patterns of alienation and attunement —could be applied more widely to better understand the threats that datafication poses to equity and democracy in the social and environmental realms. Regimes of value, which include the institutions and technologies that make data meaningful and render them selectively available for appropriation, are relevant both to for-profit companies’ data practices and to states’ participation in the datafication of the environment; examining regimes of value raises questions about how data are exploited and how they are neglected. Patterns of alienation associated with datafication include the potential for alienation from the environment; however, at least in some value regimes, alienation may be accompanied by possibilities for attunement to natural and social phenomena that might otherwise have escaped notice.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231184891 |
| spellingShingle | Gwen Ottinger Kelly Bronson Dawn Nafus Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies Big Data & Society |
| title | Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| title_full | Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| title_fullStr | Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| title_short | Clicks and particulates: Value, alienation, and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| title_sort | clicks and particulates value alienation and attunement as unifying themes in big data studies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231184891 |
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