Data, Race & The Marketplace

This Autumn The South West Creative Technology Network (SWCTN) are running a series of monthly Data Talks for our whole network, as part of our year of thinking about Data. SWCTN’s Data Talks will focus on data & social and racial inequality, at a time when issues of privacy, ownership and power around data seem ever more pressing.

On 12 November we a joined by Dr Francesca Sobande for Data, Race & The Marketplace, who will be looking at the inherent data biases and inequalities that shape our consumerist world, with a Q&A after.

How are issues regarding data and oppression shaped by racial capitalism and the racist nature of marketplace dynamics? In what ways do data collection/construction processes contribute to the maintenance of structural oppression? Where is the human(ity) in data analysis? This session deals with questions and considerations concerning the relationship between data, structural racism, and marketplace processes.

Dr. Francesca is a lecturer in Digital Media Studies at JOMEC, with research interests and expertise in issues related to race, gender, structural inequalities, media, and the marketplace. She is Course Director of the BA Media, Journalism and Culture programme. Francesca’s work particularly focuses on digital culture, Black identity and diaspora, feminism, celebrity, the creative and cultural industries, and popular culture. She is an affiliate of the Data Justice Lab and is Communication Co-Chair of the Race in the Marketplace Network.

SWCTN are currently hosting 24 Data fellows to think about data and creative technology, and in November we’ll announce who we’ll be supporting via our Data prototyping funding call. SWCTN Data Talks will take place monthly until Christmas 2020, and we’ll be hosting recordings on our YouTube Channel and via www.swctn.org.uk. The talk will also feature BSL interpreters and a captioned version will be available after the event.

About

The South West Creative Technology Network is a £6.5 million project to expand the use of creative technologies across the region. It is part of Research England’s Connecting Capabilities Fund, which supports university collaboration in research commercialisation and encourages commercialisation of products made through partnerships with industry. The network is led by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), in partnership with Watershed in Bristol, Kaleider in Exeter, Bath Spa University, the University of Plymouth and Falmouth University.