Future Places Centre: Human Practices in Data: Shaping a research agenda

Human Practices in Data: Shaping a Research Agenda - A Future Places Centre Colloquium

For some years, phrases like ‘Data is the New Oil’ have suggested that data exist somehow beyond and separate from the practices that constitute them. The emergence of new forms of AI, which are themselves all dependent on data, build on such claims and lead to assertions about data ‘expressing’ intelligence as some kind of abstract phenomenon above and beyond the human practices that make the data used in AI machineries. Yet careful empirical research has shown and demonstrated that data-centric endeavours (of whatever kind) are intrinsically built on and entangled with human practices. They have also shown that this does not need to inhibit how the data in question can be used to offer useful views on the issues at hand, as long as that use is grounded in understanding of the practices that have produced that data in the first place (Kitchin: Data Lives, 2021).

So, what are these practices? How are they to be acknowledged when data is used? What difference does understanding those human practices make to the use of that data?

Presenters at the colloquium:

Alex Taylor, Reader in Design Informatics, Edinburgh ( https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/alex-taylor)

Dave Kirk, Professor of Human-centred Design, Director of Open-Lab, Newcastle, ( https://openlab.ncl.ac.uk/people/david-kirk/)

Richard Harper, Professor of Socio-digital Systems, Lancaster, ( https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/about-us/people/richard-harper)

Jan Hollinshead, Senior Researcher, Lancaster ( https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/about-us/people/jan-hollinshead)

This colloquium will share the state of play in thinking about data and the human practices, providing illustrative case studies of state of the art research, and helping develop fundable research strategies for future research.

The colloquium will be of interest to anyone wanting to develop research agendas in the field of data and human practices. Attendance is free but limited. Registration is therefore essential to guarantee a place.

For further information contact:

Josh Talley, aiAhIHRhbGxleTEgfCBsYW5jYXN0ZXIgISBhYyAhIHVr

Prof Richard Harper, ciAhIGhhcnBlciB8IGxhbmNhc3RlciAhIGFjICEgdWs=;

Jan Hollinshead, aiAhIGhvbGxpbnNoZWFkMSB8IGxhbmNhc3RlciAhIGFjICEgdWs=

A Future Places Centre Colloquium (EPSRC grant EP/TO22574/1)

Info: 10.15-10.45 ‘Operationalising Responsibility’, Alex Taylor, Edinburgh

10.45 -11.15 ‘The Processes of ‘Data-driven’ Citizen Engagement for Civic Processes’, Dave Kirk, Newcastle

Info: ‘Data and Place: Making Place Matter Through Personal Informatics’, Jan Hollinshead, Lancaster

‘Word Relations, Meaning and ‘Data’ in Large Language Models’’, Richard Harper, Lancaster:

Info: ‘Shaping a future research agenda for data, human practices and society’

Open discussion

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