Book Review: The Trouble With Big Data: How Datafication Displaces Cultural Practices

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

The Trouble with Big Data: How Datafication Displaces Cultural Practices. By Jennifer Emond, Nicola Horsley, Jörg Lehmann & Mike Priddy. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. Includes index. ISBN 9781350239623 (hardcover) $143.95; ISBN 9781350239654 (eBook) Open Access.

Reviewed by Brianna Storms
Information Resources Librarian
Queen’s University

The authors of the open-access book The Trouble with Big Data: How Datafication Displaces Cultural Practices adopt a humanistic approach to analyzing the capabilities and limits of big data. They present their arguments and perspectives through a humanities and cultural studies lens and have a strong academic tone throughout.

The book focuses on the findings of the Knowledge Complexity (KPLEX) Project, a multidisciplinary project to identify sources of miscommunication and misunderstanding of big data. These sources include issues surrounding language and discourse, the heterogeneity of definitions of data, and the tensions between data and narrative (p. 2). The authors encourage readers to reframe big data questions from issues related to data protection and abuse to questions “centred [on] the human experience” (p. 159).

Chapter 2, “What do we mean when we talk about data?”, addresses the “linguistic slipperiness” (p. 26) of the term “big data.” It begins by introducing the human need for a metaphor to situate big data and technology within societal contexts. Big data is often described as a natural resource inextricably linked to being an “ephemeral, mobile, [and] invisible” commodity available to sell and trade for capitalist profits (p. 23). This context disassociates data from the human and cultural experience, displacing culture from datafication. This chapter also discusses data in relation to information and knowledge, as well as the inherent cultural biases that occur when viewing and interpreting data. The authors note that “the power of data is strongly, and perhaps ironically, linked to its context” (p. 33) and there is a need for both experts and citizens to be more aware of their knowledge environments.

Chapter 3, “Making sense of big data,” provides an overview of the traditional yet ever-changing landscape of the humanistic research processes. The authors make an argument against the negative perception that humanistic research is “subjective, lacking rigour, or [is] even emotion-driven” (p. 45) and therefore less valuable compared to its data-driven counterpart. They note that it is the hermeneutic approach of humanistic research that ultimately creates knowledge. This chapter also describes the challenges humanistic researchers experience when conducting research, including when available information is fragmented or not discoverable due to digitization.

Chapter 4, “Please mind the gap: The problems of information voids in the knowledge discovery process,” and Chapter 5, “Data incognita: How do data become hidden,” discuss “the dark side of discoverability” (p. 96). Noting that there is often a disconnect between the software creators and the users of aggregated search engines, such as Google, and there are intrinsic biases within these systems that threaten the maintenance and discoverability of humanistic resources, the authors provide an overview of factors that lead to data becoming hidden through digitization projects, including inconsistent description methods, a lack of material expertise, and legal restraints, such as privacy. They are optimistic that the risks related to the discoverability of cultural information can be mitigated with the inclusion of cultural heritage institutions as key partners in the development, management, and sharing of humanistic data and research infrastructures.

In Chapter 6, “From obscure data to datafied obscurity: The invisibilities of datafication,” and Chapter 7, “Power through datafication,” the authors critically study the dominating influence big data has on our culture. Arguing that “deference to human reasoning is being displaced” (p. 105) and the “norms of datafication [are] pervad[ing] our approaches to every field of knowledge” (p. 106), the authors also warn of the increasing power asymmetries and inequalities of big data, where authority is “exerted in an opaque, algorithmically implemented way” (p. 152). To oppose the discourses of power over big data, they call for it to be treated as a public commodity and for it to stay in the public ownership, just as is the non-digital cultural commons.

In the final chapter, “Expatriates in the land of data: Software tensions as a clash of culture,” the authors pose a series of humanistic and culturally framed questions to the reader related to the future of technology and big data. The authors also discuss software production as a culture in itself and reinforce the need for software production and datafication infrastructures to serve the public good.

The Trouble with Big Data: How Datafication Displaces Cultural Practices references an impressive range of historical and contemporary examples and resources, making this text most appropriate for an academic audience. This book would be a useful addition to academic libraries that support programs and research related to the humanities and social sciences, digital humanities and digital cultures, information and library sciences, science and technology, and media studies.