Conceptualising critical data literacies for civil society organisations: agency, care, and social responsibility

ABSTRACT

This article develops a sociotechnical conceptualisation of data literacies in relation to citizens’ data practices: highlighting the agentic, contextual, critical, and social aspects of data skills and competencies, it frames data literacies as both discursive and material. In order for civil society organisations to make sense of big, small, open and other data they need multiple skills, beyond the technical; it is, therefore, unhelpful to talk about a single form of data literacy. It is more helpful to consider how such literacies in the plural develop within the material social contexts of civic cultures, and how they can progress in tandem with critical awareness about the power aspects of data, so they can become central tenets of data advocacy. The primary purpose of the article is to move forward the debate around how to conceptualise data literacy – and to question how far the concept is useful in the first place. The article draws on empirical research and starts from the premise that it is imperative to develop frameworks and training schemes that enable civil society actors and publics more generally to use open data, to make data more relevant to stakeholders, and to support their engagement in policy debates around datafication.

KEYWORDS:

• data practices
• civil society organisations
• big data
• data activism
• data literacy

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the research officer Peter Eyres for his help with the DataHub workshops, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Participants were identified from a network of over 2300 organisations and community groups with the aid of Community Works, a platform that connects the charity and voluntary sector. A total of 12 community groups were recruited, and 8 people took part in the workshops.

2 There is a wealth of projects promoting data literacy, and they cover a variety of content while they address different target audiences. Although it is beyond the scope of this article to consider in detail what these projects do, they were categorised in one or more of three categories: (a) educational tools and projects aimed at increasing critical data capabilities of real-world participants and/or online audiences; (b) projects which connect stakeholders together to engender mutual learning and knowledge exchange; and (c) repositories of information relevant to data literacy, signposting useful resources. Table 1 summarises such projects, including the data literacy topics that the projects address, the domains that are addressed by them (i.e. the empirical foci covered by the project components), and, where reflective literature exists, critical reflections on these projects.

3 The project deployed a combination of methods:

1. Tool-based and capacity-building work consisting of the development of the data analytics training instrument and workshops with civil society organisations and community groups.

2. Participant observation and a focus group interview with workshop participants.

3. Desk research consisting of mapping existing projects in the field of data literacy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Brighton Research and Enterprise Initiatives.

Notes on contributors

Aristea Fotopoulou

Aristea Fotopoulou is a UKRI-AHRC Innovation Fellow whose research focuses on social transformations that relate to digital media and data-driven technologies. Author of ‘Feminist activism and digital networks: between empowerment and vulnerability’ (2017, Palgrave/MacMillan) and writing on Feminist Data Studies: big data, critique and social justice’ (forthcoming, SAGE Publications). Fotopoulou is Principal Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Media and Communications, at University of Brighton [email: [email protected]].