Data and Society
A Critical Introduction
- Anne Beaulieu - University of Groningen, Netherlands
- Sabina Leonelli - University of Exeter, UK
Sociology (General)
Data and Society: A Critical Introduction investigates the growing importance of data as a technological, social, economic and scientific resource. It explains how data practices have come to underpin all aspects of human life and explores what this means for those directly involved in handling data.
The book
- fosters informed debate over the role of data in contemporary society
- explains the significance of data as evidence beyond the "Big Data" hype
- spans the technical, sociological, philosophical and ethical dimensions of data
- provides guidance on how to use data responsibly
- includes data stories that provide concrete cases and discussion questions.
Grounded in examples spanning genetics, sport and digital innovation, this book fosters insight into the deep interrelations between technical, social and ethical aspects of data work.
As the Founding Editor-in-chief of Harvard Data Science Review, I have studied thousands of pages of data science, with or without Greek letters. But nothing has had a higher density of inspirations per page than Beaulieu and Leonelli’s book. Without going beyond page 5, I already started to think about data singularly and plurally.
This is a very helpful resources in teaching students the beginnings of critical social data science. The structure is simple and intuitive and the book has a good coverage of ethics. I will adopt it for my module.
