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Data, ideology, and the developing critical program of social informatics
Author(s) -
Marcinkowski Michael
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23483
Subject(s) - ideology , informatics , situational ethics , sociology , context (archaeology) , empirical research , engineering informatics , terrain , epistemology , data science , computer science , politics , social psychology , political science , psychology , law , health informatics , paleontology , philosophy , health care , ecology , biology
The rapidly shifting ideological terrain of computing has a profound impact on Social Informatics's critical and empirical analysis of computerization movements. As these movements incorporate many of the past critiques concerning social fit and situational context leveled against them by Social Informatics research, more subtle and more deeply ingrained modes of ideological practice have risen to support movements of computerization. Among these, the current emphasis on the promises of data and data analytics presents the most obvious ideological challenge. In order to reorient Social Informatics in relation to these new ideological challenges, L ouis A lthusser's theory of ideology is discussed, with its implications for S ocial I nformatics considered. Among these implications, a changed relationship between S ocial I nformatics's critical stance and its reliance on empirical methods is advanced. Addressed at a fundamental level, the practice of S ocial I nformatics comes to be reoriented in a more distinctly reflective and ethical direction.