Towards Re-Orienting the Big Data Rhetoric

Abstract

Data analytics and BI (business intelligence) systems are the most prominent user-facing manifestation of 'big data' and the related computational turn in thinking within organizations. However, the big data mythologies-specifically that data can offer more accurate, objective and truthful forms of intelligence and knowledge-impact, reinforce, and reproduce certain epistemological biases. In my research, I study these big data technologies in human services related contexts to examine knowledge claims and the strengths and limitations of big data.