Resisting big data

Abstract

The major social challenge this article addresses is the extensive datafication of society, which invades all spheres of contemporary life, and renders imperative that citizens become aware of the critical role of ICTs in all aspects of their social and political life. While the state and the industry has acknowledged the value of big data, civil society is slowly but steadily catching up and turning big to its own ends through various social and political activities. This form of practices can be defined as cultures of awareness”, which triggers new forms of civic engagement and political action that constitute a vast area of defined as data activism (Milan, 2015). Data refers to users, who perceive the use of big both as a challenge to individual rights, and a novel set of opportunities for social change. A question that bears more study and is still unanswered through the literature is: how activists (institutional and non-institutionnal) resist the datafication of society through cultures of awareness and whether their tactics and practices have some implications on the meaning of citizenship—its enactment and transformation. This article responds to this need through a mapping of the conceptual and contextual terrain of activists' practices, available tools and campaigns. Through a comprehensive review we seek to: (a) determine activists' practices (tools), spaces of struggle (alternative spaces, social media groups, software) and discourses (how activists position and reposition themselves and their tactics); (b) identify to what extent these activists tactics of resistance enable to interrogate specific dimensions and make sense of the operations of based power and autonomy. This will allow us to critically evaluate the potential of activists' tactics of resistance to big and to rethink about citizenship in both meaning and practice.