Paper short abstract

The current understanding of data must change so that data can fulfil its role in social transformation. Some argue that data separates people from each other and from nature. I reflect on databases and ask how they could become more equitable in its claim to connect and empower societies.

Paper long abstract

Currently, digital technologies are proposed as solution to societal problems in context of climate crisis, reorganization of urban lives, or security issues, to name just a few. The goal is to (re-)organise existing structures of societal life and that way to empower societies and make them more resilient. Digital technologies therefore profoundly affect the organisation of societal life and data plays a central role here.

In my presentation, I focus on the question what understanding of data do we need in order to integrate digital technologies meaningfully into societal change. The main assumption is that the current understanding of data limits the way in which the role of humans in transformation processes and the interconnectedness of artefacts, people, and the environment are considered. This concept of data separates people from each other and from nature, rather than connecting them. To overcome these limits, there are calls to rethink the notion of data with the reference to indigenous knowledge. Another way, which I will discuss, is trying to understand how what can be found in the databases is connected to its environment, and conclude from this what data is and how data must be (re-)organised in databases.

Using an ethnographic approach, I explore the relationships between water, people, things and places in the city and reveal the connections, using the case water management in the city Stuttgart, Germany. On this basis, I reflect on how data could become more equitable in its claim to connect and empower people.