Data Justice Lab

The Data Justice Lab is a new space for research and collaboration at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. It seeks to advance a research agenda that examines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, highlighting the politics and impacts of data-driven processes and big data. The lab is directed by Dr Lina Dencik, Dr Arne Hintz, and Dr Joanna Redden.

The Data Justice Lab was launched on Friday 17 March as part of a public event on Social Justice in an Age of Datafication at Cardiff University.

Data Justice

The collection and processing of massive amounts of data is becoming an increasingly contentious issue. Our financial transactions, communications, movements, relationships, and interactions with government all increasingly generate data that are used to profile and sort groups and individuals. With the ‘platformisation’ of digital media alongside governmental and corporate uses of citizen data, developments in the Internet of Things, smart homes and smart cities, the systematic collection and analysis of massive data sets across our social life is being normalised and entrenched – what has been described as the ‘datafication’ of society. These processes can affect both individuals as well as entire communities that may be denied services and access to opportunities, or wrongfully targeted and exploited. In short, they impact on our ability to participate in society.

With the emergence of this data paradigm comes a new set of power dynamics requiring investigation and critique. Whilst promises of value-neutral information and possibilities for prediction are said to advance better responses to a range of social problems, they may also have serious implications for social inclusion, autonomy, basic freedoms, and established notions of ethics, trust, responsibility and accountability.

The term ‘data justice’ is intended to advance a research agenda that examines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice by foregrounding and highlighting the politics and impacts of data-driven processes and big data. The lab brings together our interests in digital media, social justice, and data power and builds on our existing research and activity in these areas.

Research

In the Data Justice Lab we carry out research that engages with data analytics from a social justice perspective. This includes research that examines the implications of institutional and organizational uses of data as well as research that provides critical responses to potential data harms and misuses. Areas of research may include (but are not limited to):

Data discrimination
Data colonialism
Digital labour
Prediction and Preemption
Data ethics
Algorithmic governance
Social justice-informed design
Uses of data by social justice groups
Data-related activism and advocacy

Check out our projects, publications and events on this website.