events

Talks, meetings and events on Knowledge Infrastructures

Who does this interface think you are?

Keynote Lecture. Data Science Day 2022, Dat a Science Centre and Social and Behavioural Data Science Centre, University of Amsterdam, 13 October 2022.

Do we need better interfaces?

Invited Lecture. DASH Webinar, UMCG, Groningen Wednesday, 5 October 2022 , 16:00 – 17:00.

Becoming a Data Scientist

29 June 2022–>rescheduled to 14 September, Lecture at Civica Social Data Science Series

The job of data scientist has been hailed as one of the most exciting emerging roles of the past decade. Who are data scientists and how do you become one? How has data-driven work led to this new role and which skills, dilemmas and achievements are associated with it? What does it mean to do that job, personally, professionally and socially?

Drawing from her recent book, Data Science and Society: A Critical Introduction , with Sabina Leonelli, Anne Beaulieu will speak on becoming a data scientist and on the skills that data scientists need to put data to work. To address these topics, the questions ‘what is data science’ and ‘what does it mean to do data science’ will be explored. In order to understand what data scientists do, it is important to clarify what is usually understood when using the term data science. Most crucial, however, is to consider what data work involves and to grasp how different aspects of data work influence each other. The ways in which the skills that are needed for data scientists and data workers are taught and learned also matters greatly. They shape how collaboration can take place and affect the power dynamics of teams—concretely shaping whose knowledge is included and as who benefits from data science. The talk will end with a reflection on how data scientists can play key societal roles, in terms of social and epistemic justice, access to services, public deliberation and democratic processes.

Beaulieu, Anne. Becoming a data scientist: what it means to put data to work. CIVICA Social Data Science series. 29 June 2022, online, https://socialdatascience.network/index.html#intro

Video of lecture on YouTube

North EASST

Meet up in Leeuwarden
On 17 June, several of us at Campus Fryslân and the University of Groningen–and beyond– will get together at the Beurs for a pre-conference meeting, to present our draft papers and enjoy some socialising. Please get in touch if you would like to join.

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Socially relevant infrastructures from the inside out

Keynote Lecture at Polar Night Week, Svalbard

 

Knowledge infrastructures (KI), like the SIOS Earth System Science observing system, are built with objectives and users in mind. Some of these are explicit, but many assumptions remain in the background and are never discussed or justified. When we try to make more socially relevant, or to bring in new kinds of users—whether from new disciplines or new kinds of stakeholders—many of these assumptions can become visible. In this process, we can learn about our KI and become more aware of how we build our systems to privilege some data, to facilitate certain methods, and to foreground certain questions. We can also discover the ways in which some users and some kinds of knowledge are not served by our KI.

If knowledge infrastructures are to become more socially relevant, three questions can guide such transformations: Which new relationships can be created around the data? Which approaches to data gathering, processing and circulation could support these relationships? What is the balance between interaction, accountability and appropriation in data practices? In this talk, I will raise these three question, explain why these questions are helpful to explore new ways of engaging through infrastructures, and explore with Polar Night Week participants what are possible approaches to making KI more socially relevant.

 

If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen

 

Sports have long been about numbers and measurements: fastest, highest, strongest, most goals. In the past decade, all these metrics have intensified through new practices around sports apps. In this lecture, the datafication of sports stands as an example of how society is becoming datafied, for better and for worse. The complex role of datafication in gaining new insights, making better decisions and predicting future events as well as developing policy will be unraveled. The datafication of sports is also a prime case to explore the engagement at individual, group and societal levels. What difference has Strava made to our personal and collective lives? How do these apps connect health, leisure, friendships and business?

Reserve your ticket here.

 

Invited Presentation to Municipal Council Leeuwarden

 

  • Anne Beaulieu 2021. Data en Maatschappij, Speelruimte en toetsingsmogelijkheden, 11 October 2021.

Conference Presentations at 4S 2021

 

  • Stevens, Marthe and Anne Beaulieu 2021. Relating To Epistemic Responsibility: The Machine Learning Entanglements Of Ten Mental Healthcare Organizations, 4S Conference: Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds, Virtual Toronto, 6-9 October 2021.
  • Beaulieu, Anne, Selen Eren. 2021. STS Contributions to Better Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability, 4S Conference: Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds, Virtual Toronto, 6-9 October 2021.

Presentation at Symposium on Digital Citizenship

 

On 16 September, over 75 experts from all over the Netherlands gathered at the Beurs in Leeuwarden for this event co-organised by Campus Fryslân and Fers. It was the occasion to launch a number of pilot projects that will be pursued at different institutions and to share insights from art with Dries Depoorter and journalism with Robert van der Noordaa, while I shared insights from our work at the Data Rsearch Center. 

Gemma Frisius Lecture

On 7 September 2021, I will deliver the 4th Gemma Frisisu Lecture at the opening of the academic year of Campus Fryslan, University of Groningen. The title is Learning in the Anthropocene. The full programme can be found on the CF website.

Recent events have focused on Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability, the Data Research Centre and on interdisciplinarity. I am also involved in the board of Studium Generale Groningen and of Studium Generale Leeuwarden.

  • video of the lecture in the Grote of Jacobijnerkerk

Conference presentations at 4S Toronto-Virtual

In October 2021, I will participate in the conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science and act as co-presenter for three contributions. The 4S Conference is entitled ‘Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds’, Virtual Toronto, 6-9 October 2021.

  • Stevens, Marthe and Anne Beaulieu Relating To Epistemic Responsibility: The Machine Learning Entanglements Of Ten Mental Healthcare Organizations
  • Beaulieu, Anne, Selen Eren STS Contributions to Better Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability
  • Eren, Selen & Anne Beaulieu Epistemic value of (mis)alignments between tracking devices, birds and ecologists
  • 4S meeting website

 

Conference presentation at NOST 2021

On 20 May 2021, Selen Eren presented our joint paper Epistemic value of care(less) practices: From birds in the hand to data in the bank at the Nordic Science and Technology Studies Conference 2021: STS AND THE FUTURE AS A MATTER OF COLLECTIVE CONCERN, Copenhagen Business School, May 20-21, 2021.

PhD defense Esther van der Waal

On 26 March 2021, the PhD defense of the dissertation Local energy innovators. Collective experimentation for energy transition will be held at the University of Groningen. Supervisors are Henny van der Windt, Rien Herber, Ellen Oost, and Anne Beaulieu.

Data and the Public Order: from descriptive to prescriptive practices

Symposium  hosted by the Data Research Centre, Campus Fryslân and NHL Stenden. This event gathers decision-makers, experts, professionals and academics to work towards solutions to make use of data.

Knowledge Infrastructures for Conservation
as Matter of Care, Anne Beaulieu

Presentation in the session Modes of Futuring between Care and Control: Engaging with the Conservation of Endangered More-Than-Human Life, organised bSlide1yFranziska Dahlmeier, Hamburg University; Franziska von Verschuer, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main; Markus Rudolfi, Institute for Sociology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, at EASST/4S, August 2020.

Abstract: In this presentation, I address how conservation intersects with data about migratory animal populations, their habitats, and climate, as a matter of care. The cases used are global flyways for waders, which involve complex assemblages of diverse data at widely different scales, ranging from satellite and sensor data, to fieldwork pursued by biologists, to birdwatching reports.

In STS, critical data studies and information technology studies, care is often defined in contrast to control (Lyon 2007) and data (Pigg, Erikson, and Inglis 2018). The need to care for data is also an important line of work (Baker and Karasti 2018). Building on this scholarship, the presentation will explore whether infrastructures can be designed, built and used to help us see the world through care and  “accentuate a sense of interdependency and involvement (Bellacasa 2017)(17)”. This would mean entwining ethical obligations into these tools for knowledge, in order to support the work, affect and politics of care, and ensure “the everyday continuation and maintenance of life (Bellacasa 2017)(22)”. I will open up a dialogue between this line of work and Jasanoff’s technologies of humility (Jasanoff 2003) and Tsing’s notions of friction and survival (A. Tsing 2015)(A. Tsing 2005).

Indicating interdisciplinarity in AI

Workshop hosted by The Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), University of Warwick in collaboration with the Centre for Science & Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, funded by The Alan Turing Institute 6 February 2020.

Better knowledge through interdisciplinarity and/or big data?

Invited Presentation, Pufendorf Institute, Lund University, 3 May 2018

Wetenschapscollege Duurzaam Ondernemen

Lecture on sustainable technology, Campus Fryslân, 17 March 2020

Interdisciplinary Data Science: Experiences and ambitions at the DRC

Opening Lecture, Data Federation Hub Meet Up at Data Research Center, Campus Fryslân, 17 October 2019

Indicating interdisciplinarity in AI

Workshop hosted by The Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), University of Warwick in collaboration with the Centre for Science & Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, funded by The Alan Turing Institute 6 February 2020.

Conference presentations at 4S Toronto-Virtual

In October 2021, I will participate in the conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science and act as co-presenter for three contributions. The 4S Conference is entitled ‘Good Relations: Practices and Methods in Unequal and Uncertain Worlds’, Virtual Toronto, 6-9 October 2021.

  • Stevens, Marthe and Anne Beaulieu Relating To Epistemic Responsibility: The Machine Learning Entanglements Of Ten Mental Healthcare Organizations
  • Beaulieu, Anne, Selen Eren STS Contributions to Better Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability
  • Eren, Selen & Anne Beaulieu Epistemic value of (mis)alignments between tracking devices, birds and ecologists
  • 4S meeting website

 

Conference presentation at NOST 2021

On 20 May 2021, Selen Eren presented our joint paper Epistemic value of care(less) practices: From birds in the hand to data in the bank at the Nordic Science and Technology Studies Conference 2021: STS AND THE FUTURE AS A MATTER OF COLLECTIVE CONCERN, Copenhagen Business School, May 20-21, 2021.

PhD defense Esther van der Waal

On 26 March 2021, the PhD defense of the dissertation Local energy innovators. Collective experimentation for energy transition will be held at the University of Groningen. Supervisors are Henny van der Windt, Rien Herber, Ellen Oost, and Anne Beaulieu.

Data and the Public Order: from descriptive to prescriptive practices

Symposium  hosted by the Data Research Centre, Campus Fryslân and NHL Stenden. This event gathers decision-makers, experts, professionals and academics to work towards solutions to make use of data.

Knowledge Infrastructures for Conservation
as Matter of Care, Anne Beaulieu

Presentation in the session Modes of Futuring between Care and Control: Engaging with the Conservation of Endangered More-Than-Human Life, organised bSlide1yFranziska Dahlmeier, Hamburg University; Franziska von Verschuer, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main; Markus Rudolfi, Institute for Sociology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, at EASST/4S, August 2020.

Abstract: In this presentation, I address how conservation intersects with data about migratory animal populations, their habitats, and climate, as a matter of care. The cases used are global flyways for waders, which involve complex assemblages of diverse data at widely different scales, ranging from satellite and sensor data, to fieldwork pursued by biologists, to birdwatching reports.

In STS, critical data studies and information technology studies, care is often defined in contrast to control (Lyon 2007) and data (Pigg, Erikson, and Inglis 2018). The need to care for data is also an important line of work (Baker and Karasti 2018). Building on this scholarship, the presentation will explore whether infrastructures can be designed, built and used to help us see the world through care and  “accentuate a sense of interdependency and involvement (Bellacasa 2017)(17)”. This would mean entwining ethical obligations into these tools for knowledge, in order to support the work, affect and politics of care, and ensure “the everyday continuation and maintenance of life (Bellacasa 2017)(22)”. I will open up a dialogue between this line of work and Jasanoff’s technologies of humility (Jasanoff 2003) and Tsing’s notions of friction and survival (A. Tsing 2015)(A. Tsing 2005).

Indicating interdisciplinarity in AI

Workshop hosted by The Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), University of Warwick in collaboration with the Centre for Science & Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, funded by The Alan Turing Institute 6 February 2020.

Better knowledge through interdisciplinarity and/or big data?

Invited Presentation, Pufendorf Institute, Lund University, 3 May 2018

Wetenschapscollege Duurzaam Ondernemen

Lecture on sustainable technology, Campus Fryslân, 17 March 2020

Interdisciplinary Data Science: Experiences and ambitions at the DRC

Opening Lecture, Data Federation Hub Meet Up at Data Research Center, Campus Fryslân, 17 October 2019

Indicating interdisciplinarity in AI

Workshop hosted by The Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies (CIM), University of Warwick in collaboration with the Centre for Science & Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, funded by The Alan Turing Institute 6 February 2020.

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