Critical Data Studies as a field looks at data as an instrument of power, making it a focal point for a number of important discussions about our increasingly datafied realities. This handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the current state of Critical Data Studies, looking at data as a site of contested meanings and politics. Its chapters reflect a multidisciplinary approach that includes a diverse set of perspectives from academic fields like Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, Information Science, Political Economy, Digital Humanities, and Media, Environmental, Feminist and Postcolonial studies. The handbook’s five sections focus on contextualizing Critical Data Studies, discussing its methodologies, situating its economic and legal dimensions, presenting multiple case studies and examples, and examining the forms of resistance that it can engender. Readers will benefit from exposure to diverse frames of analysis that seek not only to examine the current ways in which data impacts our lives, but to provide models for thinking about practical responses to these processes.
