CFP: Critical Data Studies

The journal Big Data & Society has issued a call for proposals for a special themed issue on “Critical Data Studies,” to be guest edited by Andrew Iliadis (Purdue University) and Federica Russo (Universiteit van Amsterdam).

Critical Data Studies (CDS) is a growing field of research that focuses on the unique theoretical, ethical, and epistemological challenges posed by “Big Data.”

Suggested topics include:

• Causality: how should we find causes in the era of ‘data-driven science?’ Do we need a new conception of causality to fit with new practices?
• Quality: how should we ensure that data are good enough quality for the purposes for which we use them? What should we make of the open access movement; what kind of new technologies might be needed?
• Security: how can we adequately secure data, while making it accessible to those who need it? How do we protect databases?
• Uncertainty: can Big Data help with uncertainty, or does it generate new uncertainties? What technologies are essential to reduce uncertainty elements in data-driven sciences? 

Abstracts (1000 words) must be submitted by July 10, 2015 with an anticipated publication date of Spring/Summer 2016. Big Data & Society bills itself as “an open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes interdisciplinary work principally in the social sciences, humanities and computing and their intersections with the arts and natural sciences about the implications of Big Data for societies.”