Big Data Analytics in the Age of Ethnography: A Roundtable

Big Data Analytics in the Age of Ethnography: A Roundtable 

 

CHAIRS: BLOMBERG, Jeanette (IBM) and JORDAN, Brigitte (Lifescapes) 

Big Data Analytics in the Age of Ethnography: A Roundtable. While many worry about the fate of Ethnography in the Age of Analytics, we argue that anthropology offers methodological resources and conceptual perspectives that can help us understand and navigate societal changes and potential threats posed by Big Data analytics. This Roundtable brings together researchers who have been exploring the serious, fateful, and sometimes amusing claims made by and about Big Data, data mining, and algorithmic analytics. In particular the Roundtable will address issues such as the nature and limits of big data, the politics of the algorithm, and the epistemological positioning of data analytics in relation to ethnography.  Sponsored by the TIG on Business Anthropology.

 

Session took place in Albuquerque, NM at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2014.