Data, ideology, and the developing critical program of social informatics

Marcinkowski, M (2015) 'Data, ideology, and the developing critical program of social informatics.' Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67 (5). pp. 1266-1275.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.23483

Abstract

The rapidly shifting ideological terrain of computing has a profound impact on Social Informatics's critical and empirical analysis of computerization movements. As these movements incorporate many of the past critiques concerning social fit and situational context leveled against them by Social Informatics research, more subtle and more deeply ingrained modes of ideological practice have risen to support movements of computerization. Among these, the current emphasis on the promises of data and data analytics presents the most obvious ideological challenge. In order to reorient Social Informatics in relation to these new ideological challenges, Louis Althusser's theory of ideology is discussed, with its implications for Social Informatics considered. Among these implications, a changed relationship between Social Informatics's critical stance and its reliance on empirical methods is advanced. Addressed at a fundamental level, the practice of Social Informatics comes to be reoriented in a more distinctly reflective and ethical direction.

Item Type: Article
Note:

Article published online first on 27 March 2015 ahead of its inclusion in an issue.

Keywords: informatics; epistemology; information society
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HX Socialism. Communism. Anarchism
Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z665 Library Science. Information Science
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Date Deposited: 26 Jul 2016 14:36
Last Modified: 06 Jan 2022 19:41
ISSN: 2330-1643
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/7592
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