A guide to everything you need to understand to navigate a world
increasingly governed by data.
Data has become a defining issue of current times. Our everyday lives
are shaped by the data that is produced about us (and by us) through
digital technologies. In this book, Critical Data Literacies, Luci
Pangrazio and Neil Selwyn introduce readers to the central concepts,
ideas, and arguments required to make sense of life in the data age. The
authors challenge the idea that datafication is an inevitable and
inescapable condition. Drawing on emerging areas of scholarship such as
data justice, data feminism, and other critical data studies approaches,
they explore how individuals and communities can empower themselves to
engage with data critically and creatively.
Over the course of eight wide-ranging chapters, the book introduces
readers to the main components of critical data literacies--from the
fundamentals of identifying and understanding data to the complexities
of engaging with more combative data tactics. Critical Data Literacies
explores how the tradition of critical literacies can offer a powerful
foundation to address the big concerns of the data age, such as issues
of data justice and privacy, algorithmic bias, dataveillance, and
disinformation. Bringing together cutting-edge thinking and discussion
from across education, sociology, psychology, and media and
communication studies, Critical Data Literacies develops a powerful
argument for collectively rethinking the role that data plays in our
everyday lives and re-establishing agency, free will, and the democratic
public sphere.
