14. Is literacy what we need in an unequal data society?

Abstract

Having the skills and awareness to make sense of data visualizations has become a contributing factor in determining who gets to participate in our data-driven society. Initiatives that seek to enable people to make sense of some aspect of our digital, datafied worlds are often described in terms of literacy. However, taking a closer look at different usages of literacy across academia, policy, and practice reveals different notions of power embedded in different populations’ implicit understanding of the term. Situated in the emerging field of critical data studies, the field that is concerned with understanding data’s role in reproducing and creating social inequalities, this is a conceptual chapter that asks how useful literacy is in this context.