ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what questions need to be posed of the emergent data cultures found at different sites of data practice and governance, and explores how participants in these spaces are influencing our perceptions of cities and the socio-material conditions of their future development. For many in business, government and research funding, this is the era of big data and new sources of data and data analysis techniques that will fundamentally change how societies are governed, and business and science conducted. The concept of a data culture has been drawn upon in a variety of settings. In academia, the notion of a 'local data culture' was articulated by G. Bowker in relation to the diverse range of data coding and classification norms and practices that exist amongst biodiversity researchers. Philosophical assumptions about the relationship between data and reality, and how dominant epistemological and ontological beliefs inform practice are therefore important to unpack.
