Award Winners for Volume 5
Acting with and against Big Data in School and Society: The Big Democratic Questions of Big Data
In this article, we discuss on a general and mainly theoretical-conceptual level how schools and societies can/should respond to Big Data. Firstly, we identify what Big Data is. Based on Levi Bryant’s onto-cartography, we suggest that Big Data can be characterized ontologically as different socio-technical mechanic assemblages. These assemblages comprise different combinations of social systems, big states and big companies, and Big Data technologies on the one hand; and citizens, not least teachers and students, on the other hand. Secondly, we present three different assembling scenarios: 1) a state model, where a Big State in alliance with new technology (and companies) uses Big Data to control citizens and students; 2) a market model, where Big Companies in alliance with new technology (and politicians) are free to use Big Data to nudge citizens and students; 3) a democratic model, where citizens and students are protected by the state from being surveilled, controlled and nudged by new big Cyborgs and also educated to be critical of and act with and against Big Data.
Jesper Tække is Associate professor in organizational communication at Aarhus University, Department of Media Studies, Institute of Communication and Culture. Jesper holds an MA in Information Studies and Organizational Psychology from the University of Aarhus and a PH.D. in Media Sociography from the IT-University of Copenhagen. Jesper has published a number of books and articles and participatet in a number of research projects.
Michael Paulsen is a Senior Lecturer and head of Intercultural Pedagogy Studies, at the University of Southern Denmark, Department of the Study of Culture. His research focuses on the ontology and axiology of education. This includes questions like: What is education? How can education be understood? Why educate? What should education be about today? How should it proceed? How is it possible?