{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,2]],"date-time":"2026-03-02T23:00:48Z","timestamp":1772492448014,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"Transcript Verlag","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2016,12,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>As datafication progressively invades all spheres of contemporary society, citizens grow increasingly aware of the critical role of information as the new fabric of social life. This awareness triggers new forms of civic engagement and political action that we term \u201cdata activism\u201d. Data activism indicates the range of sociotechnical practices that interrogate the fundamental paradigm shift brought about by datafication. Combining Science and Technology Studies with Social Movement Studies, this theoretical article offers a foretaste of a research agenda on data activism. It foregrounds democratic agency vis-\u00e0-vis datafication, and unites under the same label ways of affirmative engagement with data (\u201cproactive data activism\u201d, e. g. databased advocacy) and tactics of resistance to massive data collection (\u201creactive data activism\u201d, e. g. encryption practices), understood as a continuum along which activists position and reposition themselves and their tactics. The article argues that data activism supports the emergence of novel epistemic cultures within the realm of civil society, making sense of data as a way of knowing the world and turning it into a point of intervention and generation of data countercultures. It offers the notion of data activism as a heuristic tool for the study of new forms of political participation and civil engagement in the age of datafication, and explores data activism as an evolving theoretical construct susceptible to contestation and revision.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.14361\/dcs-2016-0205","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,12,24]],"date-time":"2016-12-24T17:34:04Z","timestamp":1482600844000},"page":"57-74","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":162,"title":["The Alternative Epistemologies of Data Activism"],"prefix":"10.14361","volume":"2","author":[{"given":"Stefania","family":"Milan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Lonneke van der","family":"Velden","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"5471","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,12,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref201","first-page":"1","article-title":"Critical Data Studies A Dialog on Data and Space Big Data pp","author":"Dalton","year":"2016","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref321","first-page":"1340","article-title":"Designing Hues of Transparency and Democracy after WikiLeaks Vigilance to Vigilantes and Back Again In New Media & pp","volume":"17","author":"Heemsbergen","year":"2014","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref181","first-page":"1","article-title":"Big Data from the Bottom up In Big Data pp","volume":"1","author":"Couldry","year":"2014","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref481","first-page":"1","article-title":"Surveillance and Big Data Capacities Conse quences Critique In Big Data pp","volume":"1","author":"Lyon","year":"2014","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref741","first-page":"121","article-title":"Do Artifacts Have Politics In pp","volume":"109","author":"Winner","year":"1980","journal-title":"Daedalus"},{"key":"ref21","first-page":"1","article-title":"Datafication and Empowerment How the Open Data Move - ment Re - Articulates Notions of Democracy Participation and Journalism In Big Data pp","volume":"2","author":"Baack","year":"2015","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref511","first-page":"510","article-title":"The Costs of Public Involvement Everyday Devices of Carbon Accounting and the Materialisation of Participation In Economy and pp","volume":"40","author":"Marres","year":"2011","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref301","first-page":"576","article-title":"Joris van Crypto and Empire : The Contradictions of Counter - Surveillance Advocacy In Media Culture pp","volume":"38","author":"G\u00fcrses","year":"2016","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref241","first-page":"408","article-title":"The Construction of Lay Expertise AIDS Activism and the Forging of Credibility in the Reform of Clinical Trials In Science Tech nology Human Values pp Stefania Milan Lonneke van der Velden Reframing Injustice in a Globalizing World In New Left pp","volume":"20","author":"Epstein","year":"1995","journal-title":"Review"},{"key":"ref231","first-page":"149","article-title":"Soldering Toward Media Democracy Technical Practice as Symbolic Value in Radio Activism In Journal of Communication pp","volume":"36","author":"Dunbar","year":"2012","journal-title":"Inquiry"},{"key":"ref191","first-page":"28","article-title":"The Rise of Big Data How It s Changing the Way We Think about the World In Foreign pp","volume":"92","author":"Cukier","year":"2013","journal-title":"Affairs"},{"key":"ref601","first-page":"550","article-title":"pp Stefania Milan Lonneke van der Velden When Algorithms Shape Collective Action Social Media and the Dynamics of Cloud Protesting In Social Media and pp","volume":"74","author":"Routledge","year":"2015","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref31","first-page":"644","article-title":"The Personalisation of Politics Identity Social Media and Changing Patterns of Participation In The Annals of the American pp","author":"Bennett","year":"2012","journal-title":"Academy"},{"key":"ref311","first-page":"575","article-title":"Situated Knowledges The Science Question in Femi - nism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective In Feminist pp","volume":"14","author":"Haraway","year":"1988","journal-title":"Studies"},{"key":"ref411","first-page":"1","article-title":"Big Data New Epistemologies and Paradigm Shifts In Big Data pp The Alternative Epistemologies of Data Activism Epistemic Cultures In Inter - national Encyclopedia of the Social Behavioral Sciences nd ed New York","volume":"73","author":"Kitchin","year":"2014","journal-title":"Society"},{"key":"ref61","first-page":"77","article-title":"Radical Transparency In Cultural Studies Critical pp","volume":"17","author":"Birchall","year":"2014","journal-title":"Methodologies"}],"container-title":["Digital Culture &amp; 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