Envisioning the power of data analytics

ABSTRACT

It could be argued that the power of data is located in what they are used to reveal. Yet we have little understanding of the role played by the emerging industry of data analytics in the interpretation and use of big data. These data analytics companies act as intermediaries in the digital data revolution. Understanding the social influence of big data requires us to understand the role played by data analytics within organisations of different types. This particular article focuses very specifically upon the way in which data and data analytics are envisioned within the marketing rhetoric of the data analytics industry. It is argued that to understand the spread of data analytics and the adoption of certain analytic strategies, we first need to look at the projection of promises upon that data. The way that data and analytics are imagined shapes their incorporation and appropriation into practices and organisational structures – what I call here the data frontiers. This article draws upon a sample of 34 data analytics companies in order to explore the way in which data analytics are envisioned within that increasingly powerful industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Data
• big data
• data analytics
• power
• capitalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

David Beer is Reader in Sociology at the University of York. His most recent book is Metric Power [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 This article was published in Networkworld on the 13 August 2015 and is available here http://www.networkworld.com/article/2970498/big-data-business-intelligence/13-big-data-and-analytics-companies-to-watch.html.

2 This article was published in Fortune on the 13 June 2014 and is available here http://fortune.com/2014/06/13/these-big-data-companies-are-ones-to-watch/.

3 The materials drawn upon in this sample were all accessed between the 25 November and the 2 December 2015.