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The Challenge of the New Data

The Challenge of the New Data. Mark Elliot, Social Sciences University of Manchester January 2013 mark.elliot@manchester.ac.uk. Data, data everywhere…. Dramatic changes in the type and scope of data available for social research New types of data and new controllers/archives

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The Challenge of the New Data

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  1. The Challenge of the New Data Mark Elliot, Social Sciences University of ManchesterJanuary 2013 mark.elliot@manchester.ac.uk

  2. Data, data everywhere… • Dramatic changes in the type and scope of data available for social research • New types of data and new controllers/archives • Social media data growth • Commercial data • New data linkage developments • New data being linked. • New forms of Combining, enhancing, fusing, linking, merging data • More detail

  3. Opportunities • Big data and commercially owned data • Strong and enriched traditional data sources: cohort studies, surveys combining attitude and physiological data.

  4. Analysing the data layer/web 3.0 represents a significant challenge. • Accounting for the links? • Accounting for contradictions? • What does sampling mean? • It might well have more in common visual image processing than orthodox data analysis.

  5. Data Behaviour Analysis Policy Research Findings Impact

  6. An Socio-ethical Turning Point?

  7. An Socio-ethical Turning Point?

  8. An Socio-ethical Turning Point?

  9. An Ethical Headache • Access and ownership • charges and rights • Citizens and data ownership • Confidentiality privacy and data protection: • lack of clarity. • Risks to third parties. • Best practice: • New codes of practice? • New forms of consent?

  10. Privacy/Disclosure remain important • All surveys on the topic indcate this

  11. Privacy and Disclosure “There is a close connection between our ability to control of who has access to our information and our ability to create and maintain different sorts of social relationships with different people”; Rachels(1970)

  12. So Disclosure is: • The mechanism by which we operate our privacy. • This rather than the information itself is why non-consensual disclosure is problematic. • Non-consensual disclosure subverts the psychologically critical process of self-disclosure.

  13. And privacy is.... • Critical to our the formation of our identities

  14. Analysing the data layer web 3.0 represents a significant challenge. • Retaining a functioning privacy is in the world of linked data is a challenge. • We can do this but • It will require significant research effort and policy will

  15. The Role of Identity • Social Philosophy: • Identity is represented to others through self disclosure; Goffman • OTOH our identity is in part formed through our interactions with others and their representations to us; Mead

  16. So joining the dots.... • Privacy concerns personhood: • My/Our identity • My/Our sense of self • To understand the meaning of privacy in a cultural context one must refer to processes of • Autonomy • Locus of Control

  17. Identity Privacy Disclosure

  18. I would argue therefore • That our data and our “selves” are intrinsically intertwined. • That what happens in the data layer will have a transformative effect on how we think about ourselves as individuals and collectively. • And therefore the need for a sociology of data is paramount.

  19. Sociologies of Data • Our Data Our Selves: • How does data impact on how we view our selves, our identity, our society? • How do our attitudes affect how we view data? • How do new forms of (ubiquitous) data impact on a norms, attitudes and values? • Is informational privacy the main contact point between our digital and socio-physical identities?

  20. Sociologies of Data • Our Data Our Society: • How do the control processes for data reflect and affect existing social structures? • How are data shaped by the institutions and objectives that produce them? • How are institutions affected by data about/within them? • Where are the main sources of data outside the academy? • How are they used? • How does ownership affect use?

  21. Sociologies of Data • Our Data Our Research: • How do we define ‘data’ in the social sciences? • Can social science adapt to use any form of social data? • Can a meaningful data ontology be developed? • Where are data becoming ‘big data’? • Are these transformative, or just ‘old wine in new bottles’? • Where are data now providing new departures in the social sciences? • How does ubiquitous data affect the centrality of theory?

  22. To Conclude: • Analysing the Data Layer/Web 3.0 represents a challenge. • Retaining a functioning privacy in the world of linked data is a significant challenge. • We can do this but • It will require significant research effort and policy will

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