[from the abstract] “For several years now, the media, the business world, and information technology (IT) have often used “Big Data” to describe a new society-wide dynamic. It is characterized not only by the production of massive amounts of data, but also— and especially—by the huge potential benefits that new statistical data-analysis tools would confer. The proliferation of data is so extensive that data capture and
analysis are increasingly presented as exceeding human reach, thus necessitating the use of tools and IT methods for interpretation. Data extraction and analysis are defined as “data mining,” without presenting data production, access, and analysis as socially constructed (e.g., with ideological, political, economic dimensions). Instead, they constitute a means for deriving “natural” information (the Real). In this light, Big Data may be seen as a technique that dispenses with symbolic mediation and thus lies outside the field of politico-ideological debate. Our presentation deals with the potential consequences of models based on Big Data” (“Big Data and Governance”,)
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