Summer School Public Keynotes

Join us for two exciting public lectures as part of the summer school "Ecological Data – Data Ecologies: Engaging with Methods for Critical Data Studies" at Goethe University!

"Research data management has become an inevitable part of research, and both funding agencies and publishers nowadays require open and reusable data. This article focuses on one of the most prominent initiatives promoting reusability of research data – the FAIR guiding principles – nowadays widely accepted as the new standard for research data management. Through semi-structured interviews, we investigated researchers’ experiences of practicing FAIR research data management within the context of a multi-stakeholder project within the field of health research funded by the European Commission. Our analysis showed that the informants’ experiences of practicing FAIR research data management differed largely depending on which scientific tradition they belonged to; something that previous studies have attributed to shortcomings in the current infrastructure, lack of resources and persistent cultures around data sharing in the wider scientific community. Drawing on previous work presented within the field of Critical Data Studies (CDS), we argue that our findings point to a more fundamental problem; namely the failure to recognize that the FAIR framework is built on a positivist conceptualization of data. We argue that if FAIR is to have any chance of succeeding in its ambitions to be as inclusive and all-encompassing as it wants to be, these insights need to be taken more into account and provide some potential pathways."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517251349157

Very happy to see that this special issue of Sociologisk Forskning is now out in the world and I am honored to have my paper included!
"This ground truth is muddy anyway: Ground truth data assemblages for medical AI development"
Check it out here: https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.62.27826
(Open access)! #STS #sociology #criticalAI #criticaldatastudies

"In recent years, critical data studies from the Global South have gained traction, generating debates on power, knowledge production, and the politics of data. While these discussions challenge universalist frameworks, they also risk essentializing the ‘Global South’, requiring a more nuanced approach. This special issue centres Latin America as a site of theoretical, methodological, and empirical inquiry, highlighting its potential to generate new insights into datafication, power, and artificial intelligence. Rather than treating Latin America as a passive recipient of Global North theories, this issue foregrounds its epistemological and methodological contributions to global debates. Engaging with frameworks such as capitalism, coloniality, and dependency theory, the articles explore the region's heterogeneity and intellectual traditions in social sciences, humanities, and science and technology studies. This introduction proposes a research agenda for Latin American critical data studies – one that reflects historical legacies while envisioning possible data futures through interdisciplinary and critical engagement. It interrogates the politics of knowledge production, emphasizing the need for non-extractive, dialogical approaches to studying data in, from, and with Latin America. By centering Latin American scholarship and experiences, this special issue challenges dominant narratives in critical data studies and offers alternative theoretical perspectives that are globally informed yet locally grounded."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517251330160

Happy to share that a few weeks ago I successfully defended my dissertation as the first doctoral student of Digital Humanities at the University of Bern (insigni cum laude).

My study under the title «Generative Data Design: Data Visualization as Argumentative Process in The Digital Humanities» developed a practical and critical design method that conceptualizes data visualization as an argumentative process (contrary to the idea of visualizations being neutral and objective) supporting the interpretation of digital cultural heritage collections.

A great thank you goes to my supervisors Tobias Hodel and Ulrike Felsing (University of Bern) as well as Kurt Fendt (MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing). And of course to all my friends, family and colleagues who supported this journey in a diversity of ways.

Next up: Publication process.

Just heard a great talk (“Borderland Circuitry: How Racist Gang Profiling on the Street Becomes Hard Data and Enables Land Destruction”) by Ana Muñiz

Book is here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/borderland-circuitry/paper

New #openaccess book on "Dialogues in Data Power" edited by @juliane and @J0bates

I contributed to a chapter on “In/visibilities in Data Studies: Methods, Tools, and Interventions”: https://jonathangray.org/2024/10/17/invisibilities-data-studies

Glad to be part of new #openaccess book on "Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society" edited by @gastev @kfvanes @TraceyPLauriault on @AmsterdamUPress.

Here's my chapter on “Speculative Data Infrastructures: Prototyping a Public Database on Corporate Tax Avoidance”: https://jonathangray.org/2024/10/11/speculative-data-infrastructures

Menschen, denen mein Beitrag bei #dlfkultur gefällt, könnte auch eine stärkere politische Regulierung von #Amazon & Co. gefallen.

"Deutschland braucht eine Tech-Alphabetisierung" jetzt zum Lesen und Hören hier:

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/kommentar-amazon-oeffentliche-infrastruktur-100.html

#bigtech #infrastructure #criticaldatastudies @CDCLeuphana

Kennt jemand ein wirklich gutes Erklärvideo zu ChatGPT / allgemein LLMs für Studis?

Am besten eins, das sowohl aufzeigt, warum es so einen Hype um diese Systeme gibt und sie potentiell sehr mächtig sein können als auch deutlich macht, dass Algorithmen trotzdem nie „intelligent“ sind und die Antworten von ChatGPT & Co mit großer Vorsicht genossen werden sollten, lückenhaft sind, Diskriminierungen enthalten können usw.

VIELEN Dank im Voraus!

Data Stories now has a Call for Papers on #ResearchCreation and #CriticalDataStudies for the #AAG2025 Annual Meeting in Detroit. Please see our blog for further details: https://datastories.maynoothuniversity.ie/?p=444

I wrote a book on #education about #datafication:

"Critical Datafication Literacy. A Framework and Practical Approaches" is available #OpenAccess:
https://transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7378-4

It includes:
Analysis of critical data literacies & established education theories
Examination of online #CriticalDataLiteracy tools
Development of critical datafication literacy framework
Pedagogical & design strategies for critical education about datafication

18 PhD positions in new research group about Communicative Artificial Intelligence (ComAI).

Across 10 projects we ask: How does societal communication transform when ComAI becomes part of it?

More information on https://comai.space/

@sts #STS #Professorship #call at #GoetheUniversity, Frankfurt/Germany.

Are you interested in Critical Reflection and/or Governance of Computational Technologies?

consider applying at Frankfurt to work with us
https://www.c3s-frankfurt.de/workshop-2

#Computation
#digitalisation
#digital
#CriticalDataStudies
#Code

️New article alert️

In the journal "Big Data and Society," my article titled "Data Arenas: The Relational Dynamics of Data Activism" was published. I showcase how concepts such as arenas and field theory can be utilized to study environmental data activism, with a focus on the contextual and relational aspects of data activism.

Link to open access article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517231177617

Re-introducing myself as more folks come to Mastodon.

I study health and other inequities, especially how technologies and media shape them.

Hello Mastodon! I am looking for folks or/and circles in the areas of #STS #DigitalActivism #SocialMovements #ContentiousPolitics #CriticalDataStudies #Datafication #DataPolitics

an #introduction ...

my work explores the role of digital data, methods and infrastructures in the composition of collective life.

i'm currently focusing on...
- a book on public data practices
- arts-based digital methods for exploring environmental issues
- a special issue on critical technical practices in digital research
- documenting online mobilisations of east and southeast asian communities in the uk

i'm senior lecturer in critical infrastructure studies at the department of digital humanities, king's college london; cofounder of publicdatalab.org; and research associate at digitalmethods.net + medialab.sciencespo.fr.

more at: http://jonathangray.org/

tag heap: #algorithmstudies #antiracism #aoir #archiving #art #climatechange #commons #compost #criticaldatastudies #criticaltechnicalpractice #criticaltheory #datapractices #datastudies #decolonisation #digitalcommons #digitalculture #digitalhumanities #ecology #feminism #feministsts #forests #formats #freesoftware #infrastructurestudies #internetstudies #issuemapping #london #lowtech #newmediaart #newmediastudies #participatorydesign #philosophy #platformstudies #scienceandtechnologystudies #socialtheory #softwarestudies #soundscapes #speculativefiction #sts #zines