Data Justice
The Lab
The Data Justice Lab is a space for research, collaboration and engagement. It seeks to advance a research agenda that examines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, highlighting the politics and impacts of data-driven processes and artificial intelligence (AI). Our research examines the implications of institutional and organizational uses of data and provides critical responses to potential data harms and misuses.
The Lab originated at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) at Cardiff University, UK, as a space bringing together the work of several JOMEC researchers. It has become a virtual hub stretching across institutions and continents, with its co-Directors now based at Cardiff University, Goldsmiths (University of London, UK), University of Western Ontario (Canada) and Universidade Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and collaborating with researchers and data justice experts worldwide.
To find out more about the Data Justice Lab team, check the People page.
Data Justice
The collection and processing of massive amounts of data has become an increasingly contentious issue. Our financial transactions, communications, movements, relationships, and interactions with government all generate data that are used to profile and sort groups and individuals. With the ‘platformisation’ of digital media alongside governmental and corporate uses of citizen data, developments in the Internet of Things, and data-driven AI systems, the systematic collection and analysis of massive data sets across our social life is being normalised and entrenched – what has been described as the ‘datafication’ of society. These processes can affect individuals as well as entire communities that may be denied services and access to opportunities, or wrongfully targeted and exploited. In short, they impact on our ability to participate in society.
With the emergence of this data paradigm comes a new set of power dynamics requiring investigation and critique. Whilst promises of value-neutral information and possibilities for prediction are said to advance better responses to a range of social problems, they may also have serious implications for social inclusion, autonomy, basic freedoms, and established notions of ethics, trust, responsibility and accountability.
The term ‘data justice’ is intended to advance a research agenda that examines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice by foregrounding and highlighting the politics and impacts of data-driven processes and big data.
Data and Social Justice
We have explored different dimensions of data justice in our book Data Justice (Sage Publications, 2022) and in several other academic publications, such as the article Exploring Data Justice in the journal Information, Communication and Society. Key themes from the book have been summarised in this short video.
In one of the early presentations after the launch of the Lab, two of our co-Directors talked about data justice and our plans for the Lab at at the Re:publica conference 2017 in Berlin: