Big issues for big data: challenges for critical spatial data analytics

Chris Brunsdon,Alexis Comber

doi:10.5311/josis.2020.21.625

Abstract

In this paper we consider some of the issues of working with big data and big spatial data and highlight the need for an open and critical framework. We focus on a set of challenges underlying the collection and analysis of big data. In particular, we consider 1) inference when working with usually biased big data, challenging the assumed inferential superiority of data with observations, n, approaching N, the population n -> N. We also emphasise 2) the need for analyses that answer questions of practical significance or with greater emphasis on the size of the effect, rather than the truth or falsehood of a statistical statement; 3) the need to accept messiness in your data and to document all operations undertaken on the data because of this, in support of openness and reproducibility paradigms; and 4) the need to explicitly seek to understand the causes of bias, messiness etc in the data and the inferential consequences of using such data in analyses, by adopting critical approaches to spatial data science. In particular we consider the need to place individual data science studies in a wider social and economic contexts, along with the role of inferential theory in the presence of big data, and issues relating to messiness and complexity in big data.

Highlights

JOSIS, as Mike Worboys put it in his editorial introducing the first issue ten years ago, is “an online publication and all articles are free to access for any person” [17]
We asked all members of our editorial board to write vision pieces showing the diversity of ways in which our field can contribute to both basic science and major societal challenges
Some editorial board members chose to write their piece alone; others asked colleagues to contribute. These are diverse, and they span a range of topics

Summary

Introduction

JOSIS, as Mike Worboys put it in his editorial introducing the first issue ten years ago, is “an online publication and all articles are free to access for any person” [17]. Climate change has become a climate emergency, biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people have been recognized as important contributors to Sustainable Development Goals1, easy access to locationenabled devices in many people’s pockets has changed the way that societies operate, and most recently, a global pandemic has impacted on all of our lives. All of these events bring into sharp focus the ways in which the data, technologies, and methods we work on can be used for good.

Results

Conclusion