Data: Now Bigger and Better!

by Genevieve Bell, Tom Boellstorff, Melissa Gregg, Bill Maurer, Nick Seaver

Overview

Data is too big to be left to the data analysts. Data: Now Bigger and Better! brings together researchers whose work is deeply informed by the conceptual frameworks of anthropology—frameworks that are comparative as well as field-based. From kinship to gifts, everything old becomes rich with new insight when the anthropological archive washes over “big data.” Bringing together anthropology’s classic debates and contemporary interventions, the book counters the future-oriented speculation so characteristic of discussions regarding big data. Drawing on the long-standing experience in industry contexts, the contributors also provide analytical provocations that can help reframe some of the most important shifts in technology and society in the first half of the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780984201068
Publisher:	Prickly Paradigm Press
Publication date:	04/15/2015
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	4.40(w) x 6.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Genevieve Bell is an anthropologist and director of the User Experience Research group at Intel Labs.


Tom Boellstorff is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.


Melissa Gregg is a principal engineer at Intel Labs.


Bill Maurer is dean of social sciences and professor of anthropology and law at the University of California, Irvine.


Nick Seaver is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents

Introduction Tom Boellstorff Bill Maurer 1

The Secret Life of Big Data Genevieve Bell 7

Bastard Adgebra Nick Seaver 27

The Gift that Is Not Given Melissa Gregg 47

Principles of Descent and Alliance for Big Data Bill Maurer 67

Making Big Data, In Theory Tom Boellstorff 87