The Data Revolution

A Critical Analysis of Big Data, Open Data and Data Infrastructures

The Data Revolution (2nd edition) is an impressive tour de force of scholarship and practice at the intersection of data, democracy and action. Grounding itself in the emerging field of Critical Data Studies, the updated edition surveys the past decade of work on open data, big vs. small data, data justice, data and research infrastructures, security, financial regimes, data activism and more. Together the chapters provide a compelling account of contemporary thinking about data as well as outline points of tension and contestation across domains. Because of its wide-ranging and interdisciplinary purview, this book will be and invaluable resource for scholars, practitioners and newcomers.

In this extensive update of The Data Revolution, Rob Kitchin takes us on a deep dive into the practices and critiques of societies’ deepening datafication. Through his characteristic engagement with wide-ranging literatures, Kitchin introduces us to the key concepts and practices of data management and analytics, as well as the vital debates and methods that frame their critical interrogation. This is an indispensable guide for anyone looking to navigate themselves into and through the ever-growing literature on data and its critique – an essential read for any student of data.

The Data Revolution is the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to the role of data in contemporary society. Not only does it build on the author’s own considerable contributions to research in the area, but it successfully integrates a tremendous number of useful insights from across academia, business, policy, and activism. This new edition amounts to a complete revision, structured around an inspiring message about what critical perspectives on data can teach us about the actual opportunities and costs of living in a data-driven society.

This is more than a second edition. It is a comprehensive book that covers not only the fundamentals for understanding data and their ascendance but also the rise of critical research on the implications of data for societies. From definitions, methods and epistemologies to themes such as citizenship, data rights and justice, Kitchin has written what will serve as a foundational text on critical data studies.

In this extensively revised edition of The Data Revolution, Rob Kitchin takes us on a tour de force of the social science of data, charting the latest developments in critical data studies and identifying key ethical, political and cultural dimensions of increasingly powerful data technologies. A wide-ranging, thoughtful, highly informative must-read for anybody interested in disrupting glorifying narratives around the social role and impact of data.

Data is an inescapable part of the contemporary world, and The Data Revolution is an absolutely essential read for any student, scholar or researcher who wishes to understand the societies and everyday circumstances in which we now live. This is a remarkable book in its scope, clarity, and sophistication. Rob Kitchin takes us on a meticulously researched and firmly argued, critical and illuminating journey through the evolution, issues, uses and realities of data - and in doing so provides readers with the resources they need to understand, research and act as we move forward into the possible futures that the rise of data implies.

Rob Kitchin is one of the leading lights in critical data studies. Acknowledging the fast-moving nature of the field of study that is big data, with this second edition, Kitchin has marshalled an impressive array of new content that significantly updates and extends what was already a landmark book.

With social life increasingly mediated by apps, the polity progressively regulated by dashboards, and welfare decisions more and more taken by algorithms, it is clear by now that the “data revolution” is here to stay. This book is—even more than the first edition—a must read for everyone who wants to understand our complex present and find out where the future is heading. To students and scholars, this book offers a comprehensive, detailed and engaging perspective on all there is to know about how data is changing society—from the inner workings of data infrastructures to their governance implications, from the challenges to citizenship to data activism, touching upon also key methodological and epistemological questions. For everyone else who is simply a citizen of the datafied society, The Data Revolution provides the critical building blocks of a must-have data literacy. 

The first edition of this book was a stone-cold classic. I frequently found myself pulling it from its familiar place on my bookshelf. Always useful and helpful, there are traces of its influence across my lecture slides and writings of the last few years. This substantially revised and updated second edition manages to update and respond to the field whilst maintaining the foundational qualities of the original text. This new book responds in a measured and considered way the dizzying continuation of the data revolution that it describes.

The Data Revolution carefully and comprehensively maps the terrain of critical data studies in order to chart a course towards a digitally mediated world that can be ethical and just. Kitchin has produced a book that will define and shape the field.