Data Gaze, 1 & 2

Submitted by Professor Shortell on Wed, 02/05/2020 - 09:33

Data analytics: programming, statistics, machine learning, data cleaning, visualization

"Data gaze" -- knowledge/power, Foucault (Birth of the Clinic), "regard" or perception as a manifestation of knowledge creation practices in a particular domain

Post-industrial capitalism: knowledge economy, "platform capitalism"

"Data rationality" -- "The promises of making us better people, healthier, more efficient, better at connecting, interacting and choosing are coupled with ideas about what can be done to us with data, shaping who we vote for, our performance levels, our credit worthiness, our desirability as customers, and so on." (19-20)

Data analytics as an industry of intervention -- reordering of the social world; what is data used for, who is using it & how?

In order to contest these data practices, we need to know how they work, both in a general sense but also in terms of technical knowledge

Key elements of the data gaze: expertise & authenticity

Data frontiers: boundaries of data practices

Data imaginary: speedy, accessible, revealing, panoramic, prophetic, and smart