the politics of_big_data

The Politics of Big Data

The Digital Future of MarxismSAMLA 2011

Digital Humanities

What is Big Data?

- Patricia CohenThe New York Times, 11-16-2010

'A history of the humanities in the 20th century could be chronicled in “isms” — formalism, Freudianism, structuralism, postcolonialism — grand intellectual cathedrals from which assorted interpretations of literature, politics and culture spread.'

- Patricia CohenThe New York Times, 11-16-2010

The next big idea in language, history and the arts?  Data.

- Patricia CohenThe New York Times, 11-16-2010

'Members of a new generation of digitally savvy humanists argue it is time to stop looking for inspiration in the next political or philosophical “ism" and start exploring how technology is changing our understanding of the liberal arts. This latest frontier is about method, they say, using powerful technologies and vast stores of digitized materials that previous humanities scholars did not have.'

"philosophers don't use data."

There is no "pure" data.  It has a context within (and is produced by)

ideological struggles. 

Case 1:

Math for Artists:N-Grams and Distance Reading

"distance is … not an obstacle, but a specific form of knowledge: fewer elements, hence a sharper sense of the overall interconnection”  

- Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees  

- Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees

Google's N-Gram Viewer

Case 2:

Digital Harlem: The Political Economy of Data

Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930

Case 3: GapMinder: The Political Life of Facts

Hans Rosling's Gapminder

Conclusion