Evelyn Ruppert - Data Practices: Making Up a European People

Data Practices

Data Practices

Making up a European People

Evelyn Ruppert
Stephan Scheel (eds)

Copyright 2021 Goldsmiths Press

First published in 2021 by Goldsmiths Press

Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross

London SE14 6NW

Printed and bound by Versa Press

Distribution by the MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England

Copyright 2021 Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel for selection and editorial material. Chapter copyright belongs to individual contributors.

The rights of Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel to be identified as the General Editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Individual contributors retain the rights to be identified as the Authors or co-Authors of their own contributions to this work, these rights asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and review and certain non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-912685-85-1 (hbk)

ISBN 978-1-912685-86-8 (ebk)

www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press

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Contents

Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel

Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel

Francisca Gromm, Evelyn Ruppert, and Funda Ustek-Spilda

Evelyn Ruppert and Funda Ustek-Spilda

Stephan Scheel and Funda Ustek-Spilda

Francisca Gromm and Stephan Scheel

Baki Cakici and Evelyn Ruppert

Francisca Gromm, Baki Cakici, and Ville Takala

Evelyn Ruppert and Stephan Scheel

Data Practices: Making up a European People is one outcome of a project, Peopling Europe: How data make a people (ARITHMUS). It was a five-year (201420) ERC-funded project led by one of the co-editors and co-authors, Evelyn Ruppert (PI); the second co-editor and co-author, Stephan Scheel, was a postdoctoral researcher along with three other co-authors, Baki Cakici, Francisca Gromm, and Funda Ustek-Spilda, and a doctoral researcher and co-author, Ville Takala. The project was funded by the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme ((FP/20072013)/ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement no. 615588, Goldsmiths, University of London). In addition to supporting the research that led to this book, funding from that grant also enabled the book to be published open access. Of note is that the book is the product of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork, analysis, and writing and can be considered as both a research monograph and an edited collection. Rather than consisting of a series of different positions on data practices, it is a single intervention about the role of data practices in the making up of the population and people of Europe. That said, because individual chapters have been co-written by different authors and in some cases build upon already published articles, we have maintained the format of an edited collection.

We are grateful for the generosity of time and support of numerous national and international statisticians who supported the project in many ways such as providing access to meetings and interviews at their institutions and participating on an ARITHMUS Advisory Group: Barteld Braaksma and Eric Schulte Nordholt (Statistics Netherlands); Jane Naylor (UK Office for National Statistics); ebnem Bee Canpolat and Muharrem Grleyen Gk (Turkish Statistical Institute); Tuulikki Sillaje and Kaja Sstra (Statistics Estonia); Pasi Piela (Statistics Finland); Michail Skaliotis, Albrecht Wirthmann, and David Thoroughgood (Eurostat); and Paolo Valente and Fiona Willis-Nez (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe). We would also like to thank the countless statisticians, policymakers, methodologists, and data scientists who participated in interviews and accepted our presence at their innovation labs, offices, working group and task force meetings, and conferences. Without their support the ethnographic research on which this book is based would not have been possible. While they and other statisticians may question or disagree with our analyses and interpretations, we hope that the book contributes a fresh perspective on longstanding debates on the political stakes of data practices in the making of official population statistics.

We also appreciate the feedback and suggestions of six anonymous reviewers at both the proposal and draft manuscript stages. Their reviews and comments were insightful and contributed to many improvements to the manuscript. We especially acknowledge the close reading of one reviewer whose astute suggestions helped us to elaborate and strengthen the conclusion.

The book was conceived during a May 2018 meeting at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) during Evelyn Rupperts tenure as a Fellow and Van Doorn Honorary Chair at the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. We are thankful for the use of facilities and space in the NIAS building located in the heart of the old city centre of Amsterdam and the support of NIAS staff in making the meeting possible. The meeting served as an opportunity to reflect on our collaborative research and to discuss an initial framing and plan for this book which proved to be fruitful.

Our final thanks are to Susan Kelly, Ellen Parnavelas, and Sara Kember of Goldsmiths Press for their assistance and support at different stages during the writing and editing of Data Practices: Making up a European People.

Co-Editors and Co-Authors

Evelyn Ruppert is Professor of Sociology and Academic Lead for Research at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Evelyn was PI Peopling Europe: How data make a people (ARITHMUS; 201420). She is Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the SAGE open access journal, Big Data & Society.

Stephan Scheel is Assistant Professor for Transnational Cooperation and Migration Research at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Duisburg, DE. Stephan was a Postdoctoral Researcher with ARITHMUS (20142018).

Co-Authors

Baki Cakici is Associate Professor in the Technologies in Practice Research Group at the IT University of Copenhagen, DK. Baki was a Postdoctoral Researcher with ARITHMUS (20142017).

Francisca Gromm is Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Organizational Dynamics in the Digital Society, NL. Francisca was a Postdoctoral Researcher with ARITHMUS (20142018).

Ville Takala is Research Associate at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), UK. Ville was a Doctoral Researcher with ARITHMUS (20142019).

Funda Ustek-Spilda is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Manager on the Fairwork project at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Funda was a Postdoctoral Researcher with ARITHMUS (20142018).