Data Lives: How Data Are Made and Shape Our World

by Rob Kitchin

The word ‘data’ has entered everyday conversation, but do we really understand what it means? How can we begin to grasp the scope and scale of our new data-rich world, and can we truly comprehend what is at stake? In Data Lives, renowned social scientist Rob Kitchin explores the intricacies of data creation and charts how data-driven technologies have become essential to how society, government and the economy work. Creatively blending scholarly analysis, biography and fiction, he demonstrates how data are shaped by social and political forces, and the extent to which they influence our daily lives. He reveals our data world to be one of potential danger, but also of hope.

Genres: Nonfiction

274 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2021

About the author

I'm a professor at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the author or editor of 28 academic books and a 12 volume encyclopedia, and author of four crime novels and two collections of short stories. My passions are reading and writing crime fiction and undertaking research on social issues. I contribute to three blogs: The View From the Blue House, Ireland After NAMA, and The Programmable City.

Reviews

[yaya et ses amiEs achille et chlore · Rating 3 out of 5]

remâché d’articles plus intéressants

[Jun (Oliver) Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely going to be a must-read if you are interested in the socio-technical configuration of data practices. The book covers a variety of deeply entrenched social issues around data, ranging from data-driven smart city initiatives, self-management of data, sousveillance, civic engagement, citizen science, to mass surveillance, security, political legitimisation of data, data extraction, and data governance in a slowness manner. There are also many socio-technical implications of our data lives under the COVID-19 crisis in the final chapters. The book combines storytelling and academic analysis, which makes it fascinating and thought-provoking.

[Ayush Jain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not find anything in this book which has not already been stated already quite a lot. Perhaps I was not the right audience for this book.