Public Data Cultures
1. Edition October 2025
256 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Public data shapes what we know and how we live together. It is often digital, freely available and related to matters of shared concern, from global warming graphs to collaborative spreadsheets documenting mass layoffs.
Public Data Cultures explores the practices and cultures of how data is made public in the age of the Internet. Looking beyond familiar narratives of data as a resource to be liberated or protected, this book offers new perspectives on public data as networked cultural material, as medium of participation and as site of transnational politics. To better account for how data makes a difference, the book argues for a more expansive conception of what is involved in making data public. It focuses not just on removing restrictions but also on caring for arrangements involved in making data public in ways that grow shared understanding and solidarity in responding to the many intersecting troubles of our times.
Nurturing critical and creative engagements with data, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of media, science and technology studies and digital humanities, as well as artists, designers, journalists and activists working with data.
Introduction
I. RECONSIDERING DATA
1. Data as cultural material
2. Data as medium of participation
3. Data as transnational coordination
II. CRITICALLY ENGAGING DATA
4. Missing data and making data
5. Critical data practices
Conclusion
References
Geoffrey C. Bowker, UC Irvine
"This is an enchanting guide to a defining phenomenon of digital culture, which shows how different worlds may come about through practising data otherwise."
Noortje Marres, author of Digital Sociology
"Gray's book is a fantastic combination of clarity and depth - the meticulous research unfolds into a rich inventory of fresh points about computational culture without ignoring pre-digital formats and cultural practices. This book will be essential reading for critical data studies for years to come and colleagues in media studies, digital design, architecture, and many other fields will get a lot out of it."
Jussi Parikka, Aarhus University, author of Operational Images