Datafied solutions are becoming increasingly more popular in tackling social problems. However, whose concerns and priorities are mainly addressed by these data-driven solutions is an important question to raise.
TalTech´s Data Lab which explores how the data and society are imbricated and what is the role of the human factor – as both an agent and agency – in the equation has launched a new video series which tackles the issues, questions and possibilities related to Big Data in Social Sciences.
Their first video, Social Power of Refugee Relocation Algorithms, explores the perspectives of data experts and Syrian refugees regarding refugee relocation algorithms.
The video also communicates the results of the Data Lab´s recent article “Understanding power positions in a new digital landscape: perceptions of Syrian refugees and data experts on relocation algorithm” written by Prof. Anu Masso and Dr. Tayfun Kasapoglu.
Hosted within the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, the Data Lab gathers together a varied mix of affirmed and emerging scholars afferent to different European institutions and coming from fields as diverse as information systems, computational social science, public administration, and critical sociology, media and communication studies, philosophy of technology. Led by Dr. Anu Masso, Associate Professor in Big Data in Social Sciences, their main focus is on the often-opaque interrelations between (big) data, technology, individuals and society at large, in order to understand and tackle the socio-cultural transformations, consequences and recoils of social datafication. See more: https://taltech.ee/en/datalab