2017 > About

About

The 2017 Data Power Conference focuses on critical questions about data’s power, reflecting on social, political, economic and cultural consequences of data becoming increasingly pervasive in our lives. From precision agriculture to smart cities, surveillance to global finance, data (and data infrastructures) shape our lives, as information is generated, collected and analysed through the apps we use, in ways that are obvious and imperceptible: where black-boxed algorithms and opaque systems are used to profile and sort us, direct our spending and monitor our actions. Amongst other issues:

• How to reclaim some form of data-based power and autonomy & advance data-based technological citizenship, while living in regimes of data power?

• The possibility of regaining agency & mobilize data for the common good? Consider which theories help to interrogate & make sense of the operations of data power?
• How can big data be mobilized to improve how we live, beyond notions of efficiency & innovation?

We are delighted to welcome this excellent range of delegates to the conference from Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, the United States and Canada. The keynote speakers are today’s expert commentators on data power, and speakers in the sessions represent a brilliant mix of prominent thinkers and emerging, early career scholars breaking new ground with their varied research into the power of data. We are especially excited to see so many papers which ground the study of data power in specific contexts, from labour, surveillance and activism to journalism, agriculture and cities as well as data sovereignty. These represents contemporary research into data power.

All sessions were video-recorded, and links to videos are shared in the programme below each session title, with permission.