Northwestern Events Calendar

Apr
18
2016

"Digital Platforms Meet Infrastructures: Characterizing Complex Data Configurations," Jean-Christophe Plantin (LSE)

When: Monday, April 18, 2016
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM CT

Where: Frances Searle Building, Room 3-417, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Cost: Free

Contact: Gabby Garcia  

Group: Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC)

Co-Sponsor: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Category: Lectures & Meetings

Description:

The Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC), the Department of Communication Studies, and the Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University present:


Jean-Christophe Plantin,
London School of Economics

"Digital Platforms Meet Infrastructures: Characterizing Complex Data Configurations"

When: Monday, April 18, 4pm
Where: Frances Searle Building, Room 3-417
(Reception to Follow)


Abstract: Two theoretical approaches are available to characterize data-driven objects of study: infrastructure studies and platform studies. While scholarship in the former emphasizes robustness, reliability, transparency, and breakdown, the latter insists on programmability, data flows, and connecting heterogeneous actors. How do these concepts and fields relate? How do they differ in terms of scale, fields of investigation, and analytical power? Which objects, and which methods of investigation, do they bring to the fore? Are they complementary, or oppositional — or are they basically the same thing?

To answer these questions, this talk will characterize digital platforms through their complex interactions with existing infrastructures. Using literature from STS, communication studies and management, along with case studies from citizen science, scientific data sharing, and open data initiatives, it will first show the different configurations this encounter can take: opposition, cooperation, or mutual influence between the two entities. Second, it will show the consequences these configurations have on shaping access to information, knowledge production, and circulation and valuation of data.

 

Jean-Christophe Plantin is an Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, department of Media & Communications. His research investigates the civic use of mapping platforms, the collaborative challenges in big data science, and the political implications of data science. His work has been published in Media, Culture & Society, International Journal of Communication, and Digital Humanities Quarterly.

 

This event is a part of the Northwestern-London School of Economics Initiative. The funding for this event is generously provided by the Buffett Institute, Department of Communication Studies, and CGCC at Northwestern University.


For more information, please contact Gabby Garcia at gabbygarcia@u.northwestern.edu.

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