Home, Data Lives

A BOOK ABOUT THE LIFE OF DATA AND LIVING WITH DATA

The word ‘data’ has entered everyday conversation, but do we really understand what it means? How can we begin to grasp the scope and scale of our new data-rich world, and can we truly comprehend what is at stake?

In Data Lives, renowned social scientist Rob Kitchin explores the intricacies of data creation and charts how data-driven technologies have become essential to how society, government and the economy work.

Creatively blending scholarly analysis, biography and fiction, he demonstrates how data are shaped by social and political forces, and the extent to which they influence our daily lives.

He reveals our data world to be one of potential danger, but also of hope.

ISBN 978-1529215144

Bristol University Press, £18.99

20% discount (£15.19) at: Bristol University Press

35% discount (£12.50) if sign you up to the BUP mailing list

Buy at: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

PART I: Introduction

1 Data Stories (PDF)

PART II: The Life of Data

2 Blind Data (PDF)
3   The Nature of Data
4   Gridlock
5   In Data We Trust
6 How to Lose (and Regain) 3.6 Billion Euros
7   Harmonizing Data is Hard
8 Open and Shut Case
9   The Politics of Building Civic Tech
10 So More Trumps Better?
11 Hustling for Funding
12 The Secret Science of Formulas
13 The End of the Data Lifecycle

PART III: Living with Data

14 Traces and Shadows (PDF)
15 Recommended Life
16 The Quantified Self
17 Fighting Fires
18 Management Through Metrics
19 Guinea Pigs
20 Big Brother is Watching and Controlling You
21 Security Theatre
22 When a Country Ignores Its Own Data
23 Data Theft
24 Data for the People, by the People
25 Black Data Matter

PART IV: Conclusion

26 A Matter of Life and Death
27 Data Futures

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REVIEWS

PAUL Dourish

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

“We all use data to tell stories. In this tremendous book, Rob Kitchin tells stories too, prompting us to reimagine how data lives and how we live with it.”

teresa scassa

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

“An anthropologist and a computer scientist walk into a café… Using diverse narrative styles, this book provides an engaging and important account of the choices and contexts that shape the data that increasingly impact our lives.”

DAVID BEER

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

“A staggering volume that knowingly and skillfully upends established visions of our data lives. Surprising, unpredictable and inspiring. By breaking the patterns of commentary and mixing-up the style of academic writing this will be a landmark and transformative text from one of the foremost thinkers in the field.”

LINNET TAYLOR

TILBURG UNIVERSITY

“Rob Kitchin is engaged in making our datafied world more liveable. He asks not just how our digital selves are constructed, managed and marketed by others, but how we might connect to that process and influence it.”

SANDRA COLLINS

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND

“Rob Kitchin’s appealing and innovative use of data stories propels the reader right into complex discussions about data creation and use – a thought-provoking and highly enjoyable read.”

Agnieszka Leszczynski

WESTERN UNIVERSITY

“Data Lives is the ultimate resource for all of us who have wondered what happens to our data after they enter the ether beyond our digital devices, where we only briefly encounter data along what are revealed to be complex and often surprising trajectories.”

JAMES ASH

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

“A powerful and important account of the role data plays in shaping everyday life from a world leading researcher with decades of experience in the field.”

Ayona Datta

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

“Written in a very accessible and engaging format, ‘Data lives’ is a brilliant tour de force of how data shapes our everyday lives and is shaped by the ways we produce it. This is going to be a key reference for years to come.”

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AUTHOR

ROB KITCHIN

Rob Kitchin is a professor in the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, Ireland. He wrote his first article about the internet in 1995 and has conducted extensive research on digital technologies and their impact on society. He is (co)author or (co) editor of 31 non-fiction books including, Mapping Cyberspace (Routledge, 2000), Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2011), The Data Revolution (Sage, 2014), Understanding Spatial Media (Sage, 2017), Data and the City (Routledge, 2017), Digital Geographies (Sage, 2018), The Right to the Smart City (Emerald, 2019), How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables (Meatspace Press, 2019), and Slow Computing: Why We Need Balanced Digital Lives (BUP, 2020). He has been an editor of three leading geography journals and editor-in-chief of the 12-volume International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Elsevier, 2009). He is a recipient of the Royal Irish Academy’s Gold Medal for the Social Sciences.

https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/rob-kitchin