Data Activism and Data Governance

Abstract

Big Data are not a neutral field of political practice and knowledge. On the one hand, when engaging with Big Data, political actors develop specific arrays of data-related practices that construct, manipulate, and even subvert their political relevance. On the other hand, while data increasingly regulate society, the regulation of data is becoming a pressing concern and policies are required for data collection, sharing and analysis, and struggles over policy development have picked up, not least, since the Snowden revelations. Against this backdrop, this panel invites papers that address two main areas: i) how Big Data become an object of political contestation that fosters the emergence of new collective actors and, at the same time, intersects longer-term mobilizations in other fields - e.g. labour, women and environmental issues; ii) the role of big data as both tools for and objects of governance processes at different levels - from the national to the supranational ones.