Proactive Data Activism within the Framework of Communicative Action Theory: The Case of DataKind

Abstract

The current age is also known as the Big Data age, which refers to the abundance of varied, complex data and information. While the digitalization process has provided online, non-physical social identities and communication platforms for people, the datafication process has offered the use of data in different areas of humanity effectively and salutarily. Since humanitarian issues such as famine, education, health, etc. are increasing dramatically worldwide, the activists and organizations have started to benefit from the datafication process for social changes. In the last decade, data activism has become a phenomenon in the scope of digital activism practices. The current study focuses on this new trend data activism and aims to find out how proactive data activism can be understood within communicative action theory. In this vein, case study analysis was selected as the research method to examine the data activist platform DataKind. Based on the theory, interactive structure, argumentation base and implementation formation of DataKind were analyzed in a detailed way.

Keywords

• big data
• data activism
• communicative action theory

Proactive Data Activism within the Framework of Communicative Action Theory: The Case of DataKind

Abstract

İçinde yaşadığımız “Büyük Veri” olarak da bilinen çağ, karmaşık veri ve enformasyon bolluğu ve çeşitliliği ile tanımlanmaktadır. Sıkça tartışılan dijitalleşme süreç bireylere çevrimiçi ortamda fiziksel olmayan sosyal kimlikler ve iletişim platformları sunarken, verileşme süreci ise verinin çeşitli toplum bilimlerinde etkili şekilde kullanılmasını mümkün hale getirmiştir. Özellikle açlık, eğitim, sağlık gibi dünya genelinde hızla artan ve yayılan insani sorunlarla mücadele edilmesinde son yıllarda verileşme sürecinden etkili şekilde kullanılmaktadır. Bu anlamda dijital aktivizm uygulamaları arasında veri aktivizmi önemli ve popüler bir anlayış haline dönüşmüştür. Bu çalışma yeni bir aktivizm türü olarak veri aktivizmi anlayışı üzerine odaklanmaktadır. Temelde pro-aktif veri aktivizmin İletişimsel Eylem Teorisi çerçevesinde ele alınarak seçilen DataKind örneği üzerinden incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma tekniği olarak örnek olay çalışması/vaka analizi seçilmiştir. Habermas’ın İletişimsel Eylem Teorisine bağlı kalarak ilgili platform, interaktif yapı, argümantasyon süreci ve uygulama biçimi gibi alt kategoriler altında kapsamlı olarak incelenmiştir.

Keywords

• data activism
• big data
• communicative action theory
• datafication

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