Critical Data Studies: An A to Z Guide to Concepts and Methods
Cambridge (UK); Hoboken, NJ: Polity Press (2025), vii, 258 pp.
ISBN 978-1-5095-6653-2 (pbk); 978-1-5095-6652-5 (pdf)
"The principal aims of this book are threefold. First, to produce a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) mapping of the conceptual and methodological terrain of Critical Data Studies (CDS). To that end, the book identifies the present state-of-play, providing succinct definitions and descriptions of 413 key terms, along with suggested further reading. Second, to provide a pedagogic resource that enables students and researchers to look up terms that might be used in the classroom or in publications but in a way shorn of a detailed explanation of their meaning. The entries are designed to quickly orientate and improve the reader’s comprehension of a term and to point to sources that provide more information. Third, the book acts as a guide for discovering ideas, concepts, and methods that might be of value for students and researchers in their own studies and analysis. By browsing or following the trail of cross-references, the reader is introduced to new ways to think about and approach data-related phenomena and issues.
Many of the concepts discussed in the book are still in their infancy, and the methods in an experimental phase: they are far from being fully developed and grounded on a strong empirical basis. In part then, a number of concepts that hold promise for sense-making, but require further theoretical and empirical exploration and explication, are identified. As such, the book hints at a potential roadmap for CDS research for the next decade and beyond. No doubt, some of the concepts will prove to be stickier than others, becoming a key means through which to understand data and their uses, and adopted as a fundamental part of the CDS lexicon, whereas others will fail to gain traction and be discarded and replaced with new terms or ideas. Many of the concepts and methods detailed have a wider usage across other fields and disciplines and their inclusion reveals how interdisciplinary and porous CDS is conceptually and methodologically; here, they are discussed specifically in relation to their definition and use within CDS." (Introduction, page 3)
Many of the concepts discussed in the book are still in their infancy, and the methods in an experimental phase: they are far from being fully developed and grounded on a strong empirical basis. In part then, a number of concepts that hold promise for sense-making, but require further theoretical and empirical exploration and explication, are identified. As such, the book hints at a potential roadmap for CDS research for the next decade and beyond. No doubt, some of the concepts will prove to be stickier than others, becoming a key means through which to understand data and their uses, and adopted as a fundamental part of the CDS lexicon, whereas others will fail to gain traction and be discarded and replaced with new terms or ideas. Many of the concepts and methods detailed have a wider usage across other fields and disciplines and their inclusion reveals how interdisciplinary and porous CDS is conceptually and methodologically; here, they are discussed specifically in relation to their definition and use within CDS." (Introduction, page 3)
