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Enacting Data Feminism in Advocacy Data Work

Published: 16 April 2023 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of a study that examines the role of data in nonprofit advocacy work. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 individuals who play critical roles in the data work of 18 different advocacy organizations. Our analysis reveals five key stakeholders in advocacy data work-beneficiaries, policymakers, funding and partner organizations, gatekeepers, and local publics. It also contributes a framework of four functions of data work in nonprofit organizations-data as amplifier, activator, legitimizer, and incubator. We characterize the challenges in data work that exist, particularly in widespread attempts to reappropriate data work across functions. These challenges in reappropriation are often rooted in participants' effects to enact data feminist principles from the margins of the data economy. Finally, we discuss how nonprofit institutions operate outside of the dominant data work goals known as the three Ss (surveillance, selling, and science) and propose a fourth S, social good, that is working to challenge the norms of the data economy and should be considered in research regarding the data economy moving forward.

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    cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 7, Issue CSCW1
    CSCW
    April 2023
    3836 pages
    EISSN:2573-0142
    DOI:10.1145/3593053
    Issue’s Table of Contents
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    Published: 16 April 2023
    Published in PACMHCI Volume 7, Issue CSCW1

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    Author Tags

    1. advocacy
    2. data economy
    3. data feminism
    4. data work
    5. nonprofit
    6. social sector
    7. third sector

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    • (2024)Civic technologies in data-driven societiesAdjunct Proceedings of the 2024 Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3677045.3685456(1-4)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Autonomy, Affect, and Reframing: Unpacking the Data Practices of Grassroots Climate Justice ActivistsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661585(3016-3028)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Moving Towards Mobility Justice: Challenges and Considerations for Supporting AdvocacyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373738:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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    • (2023)AI Gender Biases in Women’s Healthcare: Perspectives from the United Kingdom and the European Legal SpaceYSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 202310.1007/16495_2023_63(247-274)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2023

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