Data Equals - by Colin Koopman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Much of the political discourse on data revolves around issues of privacy, surveillance, and liberty. But democracy faces an even greater peril: the ways our data technologies reproduce and generate inequalities. In Data Equals, philosopher Colin Koopman develops a robust concept of data equality that we can apply to contemporary data-driven domains to combat data's intensifying inequalities. Our activities from the most mundane to the most monumental are conducted through and transacted within data. Data have become obligatory to who we are. According to Koopman, our immersion in data demands a fuller and wider notion of data equality. Where data technology polarizes and separates us from one another, it undermines our ability to relate as equals in a democracy. Consider, for example, how certain groups are beneficiaries of data systems while other groups are prevented from being loaded onto databases that confirm rights such as the right to legally work or to receive state assistance. Data Equals presents novel methods and concepts for realizing democratic equality in data. Adopting the notion of data equality, and actively applying it to our data technologies, is necessary if democratic citizens are to become one another's data equals"--

Book Synopsis

An expansive vision for data equality that goes beyond algorithmic fairness.

When we gave algorithms power over our world, we hoped that the apparent neutrality of machine thinking would create a more egalitarian age. Yet we are more divided than ever, staring down threats to democracy itself. In Data Equals, Colin Koopman argues that data technologies fail us so often because we built them around a deficient notion of equality.

It is not enough, Koopman explains, that algorithms engage everyone's data with the same measuring stick. The data themselves are all too often structured in ways that obscure and exacerbate stratifying distinctions. Koopman contends that we must also work to ensure that those people subject to computational assessment enter data systems on equal terms. Part philosophical argument, part practical guide (replete with case studies from education technology), Data Equals offers novel methods for realizing democratic equality in a digital age.

Review Quotes

"Data Equals is a compelling, original, and important contribution to the literature on data studies, pragmatism, political philosophy, and philosophy of technology. It brings together perspectives that are rarely examined in concert, providing a refreshing take on data policy and the ethics of AI that challenges the idealized approach that characterizes much of the contemporary literature. Data Equals is a must-read for anyone interested in issues concerning equality and technology."--Carlos Montemayor, San Francisco State University

"Data Equals is an urgent, timely, and ambitious call to reconstruct the modern data order, which now suffocates democracies with increasingly powerful technologies of separation that draw our lives further and further apart and leave us unable to encounter one another as equals. With clarity and purpose, Koopman revitalizes the philosophical tradition of pragmatism to remind us of the possibilities for egalitarian politics and how data might finally serve them."--Shannon Vallor, University of Edinburgh

About the Author

Colin Koopman is professor of philosophy and director of new media and culture at the University of Oregon. His books include How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational Person, also published by the University of Chicago Press.