Data and Society

Anne Beaulieu is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and director of the Data Research Centre, University of Groningen. She leads the research group Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability at Campus Fryslân and developed the minor Data Wise: Data Science in Society (with Gert Stulp). Beaulieu’s research focuses on diversity and complexity in knowledge infrastructures, with particular attention to digital data assemblages and interfaces for the creation and circulation of knowledge. She is co-author of Virtual Knowledge: Experimenting in the Humanities and Social Sciences and has published widely on the significance of ethnographic methods for the study of data practices. Beaulieu was visiting research fellow at the Pufendorf Institute for Advance Studies, Lund University, Sweden (2017-18) and visiting professor at the STS Department of the University of Vienna, Austria (2018). Since September 2018, she is co-coordinator of the PhD training network of the Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC), and has developed numerous innovative courses in the major Responsible Planet at University College Fryslân. Sabina Leonelli is Professor in Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Exeter, where she co-directs the Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences and leads the governance strand of the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Her interdisciplinary research and collaborations focus on the epistemology and governance of scientific data and models, and the role of open science in the global – and highly unequal - research landscape. She is Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute and the Académie Internationale de Philosophie de la Science; Editor-in-Chief of History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences; and Associate Editor of the Harvard Data Science Review. She served as expert advisor for national and international agencies and received funding from several public funders including two awards from the European Research Council. Her books include the award-winning Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study (Chicago UP, 2016) and Data Journeys in the Sciences (Springer, 2020, with Niccolo Tempini).

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.

• Section 1: Data in SocietyChapter 1: Data in SocietySection 2: Data CreationChapter 2: Big Data in ContextChapter 3: Characteristics of DataChapter 4: Data, Evidence and KnowledgeSection 3: Data CirculationChapter 5: Putting Data to WorkChapter 6: New Data SkillsChapter 7: Governance of Data JourneysSection 4: Data Value, Innovation and ResponsibilityChapter 8: Data as a Source of ValueChapter 9: Data Justice and EthicsChapter 10: Responsible Use of Data as EvidenceSection 5: Conclusion: Data and the Knowledge We NeedChapter 11: Towards Good Data Science