ABSTRACT

Data processes are part of a significant shift in governance in which big data analysis is used to predict, pre-empt, explain, and respond to a range of social issues. Yet we still struggle to account for the ways in which different actors make use of data, and how data is changing the ways actors understand and act in relation to social and political issues. Discussions on datafication have often been limited to a focus on the algorithms and data systems themselves in order to understand their implications. This has meant that discussions on big data have often neglected the social dimension of datafication, instead confining it to a question of technology, and – with that – not fully engaged with the politics of data. Drawing on research on police uses of social media data in the UK, this chapter outlines how researching data-driven decision-making in relation to other social practices can provide crucial insights into the dynamics of datafication and highlight significant areas of tension and struggle. By focusing on practices – at both the level of those creating and/or acting on data profiles, and the level of those subjected to such data profiles – we can begin to uncover key questions about the values and interests that pertain to data in different contexts, how citizens are reconfigured within these constellations, and how they, in turn, might engage with such configurations. The chapter argues that a practice approach allows us to overcome a prominent data centrism in studies of big data.