What ifs: the role of imagining in people's reflections on data uses

This paper explores how non-experts reflect on and come to understand ‘data uses’, a phrase we used to refer to data collection, analysis and sharing. In recent years, research into what people think and feel about data uses has proliferated, whereas this paper focuses on how they do their thinking and feeling. We argue that imagining - that is, building or creating a mental image of something that is not present – is an important aspect of reflecting on data uses. We challenge the proposition that imagining takes place when there is a gap in knowledge or a lack of information, arguing instead that imagining plays an agentic role in reflection, enabling critical questioning of data uses. We draw on qualitative research carried out in the UK, in which we provided information about specific public sector data uses and asked participants how they felt about them. We found that imaginings, or ‘what ifs’, exist in a complex entanglement with different knowledges, including experiential knowledge.