Thornham, H orcid.org/0000-0003-1302-6579 and Gomez Cruz, E (2016) Hackathons, data and discourse: Convolutions of the data (logical). Big Data & Society, 3 (2).
Abstract
This paper draws together empirical findings from our study of hackathons in the UK with literature on big data through three interconnected frameworks: data as discourse, data as datalogical and data as materiality. We suggest not only that hackathons resonate the wider socio-technical and political constructions of (big) data that are currently enacted in policy, education and the corporate sector (to name a few), but also that an investigation of hackathons reveals the extent to which ‘data’ operates as a powerful discursive tool; how the discourses (and politics) of data mask and reveal a series of tropes pertaining to data; that the politics of data are routinely and simultaneously obscured and claimed with serious implications for expertise and knowledge; and that ultimately, and for the vast majority of hackathons we have attended, the discursive and material constructions of data serve to underpin rather than challenge existing power relations and politics.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2016, The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Keywords: | Hackathons, data, datalogical, discourse, politics, materiality |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/K003585/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Jan 2017 12:41 |
Last Modified: | 05 Oct 2017 16:37 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716679675 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Sage Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/2053951716679675 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:110597 |