Mastodawn

Happy to share my newest writing «Missing Data as Political Force» with you.

While "missing data" is often considered a problem, as in the context of adequate representation, the current authoritarian wave shows that data can offer recognition and oppression. For example, ICE's brutal use of personal data to target individuals with migration backgrounds. Conversely, restricting access to data and services can be employed as political pressure.

To navigate this "paradox of exposure" (as coined by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein) and missing data's relational nature (as argued by Alessandra Jungs de Almeida), I draw on theories of social and data justice, namely Bonnycastle’s continuum of social justice and Fraser’s abnormal justice, to show how missing data lies between social equality and oppression and can be analysed based on (mis)distribution, (mis)recognition, and (mis)representation.