Mobility of data across countries is ubiquitous and fundamental to advancing artificial intelligence (AI). Yet this poses significant risks, reshaping geopolitical power, fuelling value conflicts, and redefining essential literacies, particularly for small countries like Estonia. This project develops a path-breaking data migration framework that integrates migration and mobility theories with data studies and social transformation perspectives to analyse how data movements drive societal change. Using an innovative mixed-method approach, it combines cross-country crowdsourced surveys, cognitive perception analysis, and anthropological methods to trace the impacts of data
migration. By leveraging large language models, the project refines theories and builds a foundation for testing the proposed framework. The outcomes aim to provide knowledge to mitigate risks, equip future generations with critical skills, and prepare societies for AI transformations driven by data migration.
EVENTS
Workshop overview
Data has long been described through metaphors of flows, streams, journeys, and transfers, offering powerful ways to conceptualise how information circulates. More recent research has begun to examine the social mechanisms through which data moves, replicates, and transforms across contexts. This workshop builds on emerging conceptual work on data migration and data mobilities which approach data movement through theories of mobility, socio-technical infrastructures, and social transformation.
Through the workshop we will explore and highlight the conceptual, empirical, and methodological approaches to understanding data migration and mobilities as processes that actively reshape social life.
Workshop Schedule
7th April
13:00-14.15: Presentation by Rob Kitchin, professor in the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute and the Department of Geography. Open to interested members of TalTech.
8th April
09:30–10:00: Gathering and coffee
10:00–10:15: Introduction
10:15–10:45: Data migration and data mobilities: what they are and why we need them?
10:45–12:15: Presentation Session 1
12:15–13:15: Lunch
13:15–14:45: Presentation Session 2
14:45–15:00: Coffee break
15:00–17:00: Presentation Session 3
19:00: Workshop dinner
9th April
09:30–11:00: Presentation Session 4
11:00–11:15: Coffee break
11:15–12:45: Presentation Session 5
12:45–13:45: Lunch
13:45–15:15: Presentation Session 6
15:15–15:30: Conclusion: towards a new research agenda?