Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data

by Nanna Bonde Thylstrup (Editor), Daniela Agostinho (Editor), Annie Ring (Editor), Catherine D'Ignazio (Editor), Kristin Veel (Editor)

Overview

Scholars from a range of disciplines interrogate terms relevant to critical studies of big data, from abuse and aggregate to visualization and vulnerability.

This pathbreaking work offers an interdisciplinary perspective on big data, interrogating key terms. Scholars from a range of disciplines interrogate concepts relevant to critical studies of big data—arranged glossary style, from from abuse and aggregate to visualization and vulnerability—both challenging conventional usage of such often-used terms as prediction and objectivity and introducing such unfamiliar ones as overfitting and copynorm. The contributors include both leading researchers, including N. Katherine Hayles, Johanna Drucker and Lisa Gitelman, and such emerging agenda-setting scholars as Safiya Noble, Sarah T. Roberts and Nicole Starosielski.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262539883
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Pages:	656
Sales rank:	733,223
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Nanna Bonde Thylstrup is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School and author of The Politics of Mass Digitization (MIT Press).Daniela Agostinho is postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.Annie Ring is Associate Professor in the School of European Languages, Culture, and Society at University College London, and author of After the Stasi. Catherine D'Ignazio is Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media at Emerson College and coauthor of Data Feminism (MIT Press). Kristin Veel is Associate Professor at the Department for Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen and coauthor of Tower to Tower (MIT Press).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Big Data as Uncertain Archives Nanna Bonde Thylstrup Daniela Agostinho Annie Ring Catherine D'Ignazio Kristin Veel 1

1 Abuse Sarah T. Roberts 29

2 Affect Marika Cifor 37

3 Aggregation Sune Lehmann 47

4 Algorithmic Racism Alana Lentin 57

5 Bots Aristea Fotopoulou Tanya Kant 65

6 Care Daniela Agostinho 75

7 Complicity Annie Ring 87

8 Conversational Agents Ulrik Ekman 99

9 Cooling Nicole Starosielski 109

10 Copynorms Minh-Ha T. Pham 115

11 Database Tahani Nadim 125

12 Demo Orit Halpern 133

13 Detox Pepita Hesselberth 141

14 Digital Assistants Miriam E. Sweeney 151

15 Digital Humanities Roopika Risam 161

16 DNA Mél Hogan 171

17 Drone Lila Lee-Morrison 179

18 Error Nanna Bonde Thylstrup 191

19 Ethics Louise Amoore 201

20 Executing Critical Software Thing: David Gauthier Audrey Samson Eric Snodgrass Winnie Soon Magdalena Tyzlik-Carver 209

21 Expertise Caroline Bassett 217

22 Field Shannon Mattern 227

23 Figura Frederik Tygstrup 235

24 File Craig Robertson 241

25 Flesh Romi Ron Morrison 249

26 Glitch Rebecca Schneider 259

27 Hashtag Archiving Tara L. Conley 271

28 Hauntology Lisa Blackman 279

29 Instrumentality Luciana Parisi 289

30 Interface Christian Ulrik Andersen Soren Bro Pold 299

31 Intersectionality Brooklyne Gipson Frances Corry Safiya Umoja Noble 305

32 Latency Kristin Veel 313

33 Metadata Amelia Acker 321

34 Migrationmapping Sumita S. Chakravarty 331

35 (Mis)gendering Os Keyes 339

36 Misreading Lisa Gitelman 347

37 Natural Mimi Onuoha 353

38 Obfuscation Mushon Zer-Aviv 359

39 Organization Timon Beyes 369

40 Outlier Catherine D'Ignazio 377

41 Performative Measure Kate Elswit 389

42 Pornography Patrick Keilty 397

43 Prediction Manu Luksch 403

44 Proxies Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Boaz Levin Vera Tollmann 419

45 Quantification Jacqueline Wernimont 427

46 Remains Tonia Sutherland 433

47 Reparative Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld 443

48 Self-Tracking Natasha Dow Schüll 457

49 Shifters Celia Lury 469

50 Sorting David Lyon 477

51 Stand-In Olga Goriunova 485

52 Supply Chain Miriam Posner 493

53 Technoheritage Nora Al-Badri 499

54 Throbber Kristoffer Orum 513

55 Time.now Geoff Cox Jacob Lund 523

56 Unpredictability Elena Esposito 533

57 Unthought N. Katherine Hayles 541

58 Values John S. Seberger Geoffrey C. Bowker 551

59 Visualization Johanna Drucker 561

60 Vulnerability Birkan Tas 569

61 Word Daniel Rosenberg 579

Contributors 585

Index 597

Editorial Reviews

"Uncertain Archives is an impressive book, both in the sense that it is an extensive and well executed piece of work, and in the sense that it makes an impression on the reader. [ . . . It] provides rich, original, and valuable insights into fundamental issues in society, which at the same time run deep and are changing rapidly.”—Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies

“Thus, particularly for those engaged in the digital humanities, this keyword glossary offers a significant starting point for further investigation, interrogation, and adaptation of big-data methodologies.”
—David Reamer, University of Tampa; Journal of Business and Technical Communication


“Rehabilitating uncertainty as a framework for learning, Uncertain Archives is a vade mecum not only for academic researchers and media practitioners engaged in critical data or archival studies but also for anyone who is willing to explore the complexities of big data archives at the crossroad between humans and machines.”
—Guilia Taurino, Northeastern University; Information and Culture


“This book comes at a time when both archival practice and the academic discipline of archival studies are accelerating their interrogation of the social and political contexts of archives and records, where questions of inclusion, exclusion, management, use, survival, labour, preservation and impact come into play. The focus on big data in this volume, whilst not always made explicit in relation to archives, enables the reader to critically engage with the uncertainty that technological developments bring with them. Whilst it need not be on every archivist’s shelf, it does need to be readily available in reference libraries and on reading lists as a glossary of vital concerns and central concepts.”
—Jessamy Harvey, Archives and Records


“The volume as a whole will particularly appeal to scholars from across STS, applied data science, digital humanities and many others thinking about and with data across disciplines … For a project aiming not to define or chart a field but to help construct an ‘engaged alliance’ for critical thinking and action around big data, Uncertain Archives makes a valuable contribution.” 
—Catriona Gray, LSE Review of Books


“Thylstrup, Agostinho, Ring, D’Ignazio, and Veel’s Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data is in many ways an extraordinary piece of scientific work. Consisting of 640 pages with 61 chapters authored by no less than 73 contributors, the book offers a substantial addition to existing scholarship on the societal consequences of the large scale datafication of modern life. Yet it is not only the sheer size of the book or its well-crafted composition that is remarkable, but also—and more importantly—the rich insights it presents.”
—Maja Bak Herrie, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics

From the Publisher