Contentious Data: A One-day event on the Politics of Big Data for Activism

Coming up on September 15, 2016!

Contentious Data is the kick-off event of the DATACTIVE project.

How do people resist corporate privacy intrusion and government surveillance by means of technical fixes? How does civil society take advantage of the possibilities for civic engagement, advocacy, and campaigning provided by the availability of the so-called ‘big data’?

We are an interdisciplinary research project hosted at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. DATACTIVE investigates citizens’ engagement with massive data collection. It originates from the observation that, with the diffusion of big data, citizens become increasingly aware of the critical role of information in modern societies. This awareness nurtures new social practices rooted on data and technology, which we term ‘data activism’. By increasingly involving ordinary users, data activism is a signal of a change in perspective and attitude towards massive data collection emerging within the civil society realm.

Contentious Data will bring together scholars and practitioners to explore the politics of big data from the perspective of activism and civil society.

Speakers include Sandra Braman (Texas A&M University), Alison Powell (London School of Economics), Hisham al-Miraat (Digital Rights Morocco), Linnet Taylor (Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society), Dorien Zandbergen (University of Amsterdam), Jaromil/Denis Rojo (dyne.org), Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures), and Stefania Milan (DATACTIVE Principle Investigator).

Contentious Data is sponsored by the European Research Council (ERC), the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies (ACGS), the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).