ABSTRACT
Data futures in higher education are the focus of this chapter, which takes as a starting point surveillance cultures in universities in the late 2010s, and the difficulties and power relations involved in discussing and critiquing these. The chapter introduces the “Data Stories” project, a research project that developed a speculative participatory storytelling tool and scaffolded process to support the creation of stories about forms, processes and purposes of scrutiny and data collection. With an analysis of some of the stories produced with the tool, and a discussion of how and why it was created, the chapter argues that stories can be productive objects to think with, and that working even with dystopian futures can function to counter resignation and a sense of inevitability.
