---
# System prepended metadata

title: Data Studies 2020 @ ddinf Aarhus

---

# Data Studies 2020 @ ddinf Aarhus 

![](https://gitlab.com/xpablov/data-studies/-/raw/master/images/bike.png)

Data Studies explores different contexts where data is gathered and produced. The course considers the question of what can be understood as “data” from these contexts, and how this understanding changes the perspective of data regarding its collection, analysis, uses, and methodological approaches. While theory and historical knowledge is provided, the course aims to generate reflection from the students based on practices and a diversity of uses of data. However, the approach to data is guided by social science’s concerns.

**No materials are strictly required for the course, however you will need**:

* To create an account in [HackMD](https://hackmd.io) (put your username in the shared pad)
* To create an account in [Perusall](https://app.perusall.com) (course code: VELASCO-K7GLM)
* (it is recommended to use the same username both in HackMD and Perusall)
* To install the [Anaconda Python](https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/) environment 

### 🎓 LECTURE
**[click for Covid19-related information](https://hackmd.io/@xpablov/rk7zKDgXP)**

**Time**: Thursdays: 16.00-18.00
**Location**: 5510-103 (Stor Auditorium)

**Instructor**: Pablo Velasco // pvelasco@cc.au.dk // hackmd: xpablov // http://pablov.me/
Office: 5347 (Wiener building) room 117
**Instructor**: Midas Nouwens // midasnouwens@cc.au.dk // hackmd: midasn
**Instructor**: Maximilian Schlüter // mschlueter@cc.au.dk  
**Instructor**: Martin Broholt Trans // 201808458@post.au.dk // hackmd: martinbtrans

### 🛠️ WORKSHOPS
* :hamster: - Friday 08.00-10.00 (5008-139)
* :koala: - Friday 10.00-12.00 (5008-139)
* :panda_face: - Friday 12.00-14.00 (5008-139)

### 🔥 LINKS FOR THE COURSE:
* HackMD course home: https://hackmd.io/@ds20/By1Gek9R8 
* Readings: can be seen and downloaded from the Perusall course web
* Discord channel: https://discord.gg/YrhvsaQ
* Groups: https://hackmd.io/@ds20/rJFufDzXP/edit 
* Ghosts calendar: https://hackmd.io/@ds20/rJkFS7I4P

## 🧱 TASKS/DELIVERABLES (for every block)

* **Mini-project groupwork**
    * Mini-projects groupwork will take place all along the term. You will have to use specific tools for each mini-project. **Short presentations of the mini-projects will take place during the lecture on weeks 38, 40, 44, 46, and 48**. Each group will only present once. 
* **Wikis**
    * You are expeced to work on the wikis during the block (don't leave it to the last minute!).
        * *Wiki-report*
            * All groups should generate a report on their groupwork mini-projects on the ~~HackMD wiki~~ blackboard blog. **The deadlines for submitting the wiki-report are Tuesdays 11.59pm of presentation weeks** (e.g. 15-sep for the first block).
        * *Wiki-thoughts*
            * Everyone (individual work) **can** comment on the readings throught the Perusall platform during the term. Some groups **will have** to comment on the readings each week.
* **Peer Review**
    * For each presentation, another group will have to provide peer-feedback (which groups present, and which groups provide feeback will be announced at the beginning of the presentation week).

### [Mini-project B1](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/rJfOkOL4D)
### [Mini-project B2](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/HkW7mb5HD)
### [Mini-project B3](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/B1n-QOzLw)
### [Mini-project B4](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SJtibM1KD) 
### [Mini-project B5](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SyThl-sKD)

### FINAL PROJECT
The final project is a groupwork, which must use the main TCAT database, alongside with other tools and methods seen in the course. Week 41 will be focused on how to design the final project, which you will develop in your groups from week 41 to week 48. **A final presentation of the project will take place on week 49**. 

### [More information on the final project can be found HERE](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SJ1LZ3jLP).

### EXAM
The exam is a writen version of the final group project. Specific details on what should be included in the submitted version will be provided after week 42.
**Pre-requisites for the exam: to have submitted all the mini-projects (groups)** ~~and contributed to the wiki-thoughts (individual).~~

### [More information on the exam can be found HERE](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/ryhAoxhYD)


## 📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY
### Extended bibliography here: https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SyrvUhINw

## 📅 CALENDAR
<p style="color:red">Calendar may be subject to changes, including readings. Remember to double check.</p>

| WEEK | DATE   | BLOCK / TOPICS | ✨ ASSIGNMENTS / ☛ READINGS |
| ---- | ------ | ----- | ------------------------------------ |
| 36   | 03 sep | 🧱 **BLOCK 0: ETHOS** <br><br>[Introductory session](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/BJMQZhimP) | ☛ 		Rogers, 		Richard. “Foundations 		of Digital Methods.” 		In The Datafied Society. Studying Culture through Data, 75–94. 		Amsterdam University Press, 2017. (20 p.) 		<br> ☛ 		Annette 		N. Markham. “Research 		Ethics in Context.” 		In The Datafied Society. Studying Culture through Data, edited by 		van Es Karin and Schäfer Mirko Tobias, 201–9. Amsterdam 		University Press, 2017. (19 p.) |
| 36   | 04 sep | *workshop*: [Data Miner & Raw](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/ryMbDS0mD)                                                   |                                                              |
| 37   | 10 sep | 🧱 		**BLOCK 		1: DATA CAPTURE** 		 <br> <br>[Data taxonomies](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SkqKODLVv) <br><br>👻: 3, 12, 17, 23 | ☛ 		Gitelman, 		Lisa. Raw Data Is an Oxymoron. MIT Press, 2013. (CHAPTER 		1: Data 		before the fact, 		25 p.) 		<br>☛ 		Beer, 		David. The Data Gaze: Capitalism, Power and Perception. 1 edition. 		Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018. (CHAPTER 		5: 		the 		diagnostic eye, 		30 p.) |
| 37   | 11 sep | *workshop*: [Voyant](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/S1U8epLVw)          |                                                              |
| 38   | 17 sep | 		[Crawling and Scraping the Web](https://blackboard.au.dk/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_2805516_1&course_id=_137343_1&launch_in_new=true)   <br><br>👻: 6, 9, 20, 10                  | ☛ 		Noortje 		Marres & Esther Weltevrede (2013) Scraping the Social?, 		Journal 		of Cultural Economy, 6:3, 313-335 |
| 38   | 18 sep | *workshop*: [web-extractor](https://github.com/centre-for-humanities-computing/web-extractor)                                                   | ✨ 		Presentations 		mini-project 01              |
| 39   | 24 sep | 🧱 		**BLOCK 		2: PLATFORMS, APIs, & BEAUTIFUL DATA** <br><br> [Platforms and APIs](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/pid-2818520-dt-content-rid-9291660_1/courses/BB-Cou-Hold-35244/04-Platforms-APIS-DataStudies2020.pdf) <br><br>👻: 8, 15, 19, 13 | ☛ 		What 		are APIs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVvTv9Hy91Q 		<br>☛ 		Helmond, 		A. (2015). The Platformization of the Web: Making Web Data 		Platform Ready. Social Media + Society. 		<br>☛ 		Jessamy 		Perriam, Andreas Birkbak & Andy Freeman (2020) Digital methods 		in a post-API environment, International Journal of Social 		Research Methodology, 23:3, 277-290 |
| 39   | 25 sep | *workshop*                                                   |                                                              |
| 40   | 01 oct | [Dear, beautiful data](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/S1MazlzLw)   <br><br>👻: 1, 14, 21, 4                                 | ☛ 		Hochman, 		Nadav, and Lev Manovich.[ 			“Zooming 			into an Instagram City: Reading the Local through Social Media.”](http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4711) 		First 		Monday 18, no. 7 (June 17, 2013). (~50 p.) 		<br>☛ 		Malik, 		Momin M. “Identifying 		Platform Effects in Social Media Data,” 		n.d., 9. (9 p.) [ignore equations!] 		 		<br>☛ 		McInerny, 		Greg. Visualizing Data: a view form design space, in Lury, Celia, 		Rachel Fensham, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Sybille Lammes, Angela 		Last, Mike Michael, and Emma Uprichard, eds. Routledge Handbook of 		Interdisciplinary Research Methods. 1st ed. Routledge, 2018. (10 		p.) 		  <br><br>* 		(Suggested) 		Zomorodi, 		Manoush. n.d. “Facing Our Weirdest Selves 2016.” Note to Self. 		Accessed September 26, 2018.[ 			https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/dear-data-quantified-self-tracking](https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/dear-data-quantified-self-tracking). |
| 40   | 02 oct | workshop: [Anaconda + Jupyter I: brief intro to python](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/BysbvpoHw)                                                   | ✨ 		Presentations 		mini-project 02              |
| 41   | 08 oct | **[[PROJECT 		SESSION](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/Syf0QEjUP)]**   <br><br>👻: 2, 16, 18, 5                            | ☛ 		Ruppert, 		Evelyn, John Law, and Mike Savage. “Reassembling Social Science 		Methods: The Challenge of Digital Devices.” Theory, Culture & 		Society 30, no. 4 (2013): 22–46. (24 p.) 		<br>☛ 		Marres, 		Noortje. “The Redistribution of Methods: On Intervention in 		Digital Social Research, Broadly Conceived.” The Sociological 		Review 60 (2012): 139–65. (26 p.) |
| 41   | 09 oct | workshop: [Anaconda + Jupyter II: intro to Pandas and cleaning data](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/BysbvpoHw)                                                 |                                                              |
| 42   | ⮾      |                                                              |                                                              (🥔 potato week) |
| 43   | 22 oct | 🧱 		**BLOCK 		3: METHODS & NETWORKS** <br><br> 		*Guest Lecture* with Magdalena Tyzlik-Carver: **Fermenting Data: animating data as common practice.** <br><br> This session introduces the curatorial project Fermenting Data which is an example of another way of working with data. Increasingly today data is understood to belong to the field of computer science and statistics, yet what we refer to as big data is only possible because of mass scale use of digital devices and systems that capture all kinds of data on an unprecedented scale.<br>Fermenting Data replaces automation of data capture with sensing and sense-making with data and fermentation. The project invites to discover and invent data processing through practice of fermentation. To ferment data is to speculate and create ways to live together as people and others who care.<br> https://fermentingdata.net/ <br><br>👻: 7, 11, 22, 13  | ☛ Hogan, Mél. 2018. [“Big Data Ecologies.”](http://ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/contribution/18-3hogan.pdf) Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization 18 (3 Landscapes of political action): 631–57.<br>☛  Margulis, Lynn, and Dorion Sagan. 1997. “The Animation of Matter.” In Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors, 47–57. Berkeley: University of California Press. 		 |
| 43   | 23 oct | [*workshop*](http://python.broholttrans.dk/week43.pdf)                                                   |                                                              |
| 44   | 29 oct | [Networks and digital objects](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/HJf3RG7OD)     <br><br>👻: 3, 12, 17, 23     | ☛ 		Venturini, 		Tommaso, and Mathieu Jacomy. “Visual 		Network Analysis.” 		Sciences Po Médialab Working Papers. (34 p.) 		<br> ☛ Latour, 		Bruno, Pablo Jensen, Tommaso Venturini, Sébastian Grauwin, and 		Dominique Boullier. 2012. ‘“The 		Whole Is Always Smaller than Its Parts”–a Digital Test of 		Gabriel Tardes’ Monads’. 		The British Journal of Sociology 63 (4): 590–615. (25 p.) 	<br>☛	Bruns, 		Axel, and Jean Burgess. “The 		Use of Twitter Hashtags in the Formation of Ad Hoc Publics,” 		n.d., 9. (9 p.) |
| 44   | 30 oct | *workshop*: [Visual Network Analysis with Gephi](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SypxVEX_w)                                                   | ✨ 		Presentations 		mini-project 03              |
| 45   | 05 nov | 🧱 		**BLOCK 		4: BIG DATA, BIG POLITICS**  <br><br> 		[Data 		Protection and Data Rights in the EU](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/pid-2869129-dt-content-rid-9885325_1/courses/BB-Cou-Hold-35244/10-DataRights-DataStudies2020.pdf)   <br><br>[Hold slides](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/pid-2872749-dt-content-rid-9896408_1/courses/BB-Cou-Hold-35244/10-DataRightsTA-DataStudies2020.pdf)<br><br>👻: 6, 9, 20, 10 | ☛ 		Ausloos, 		J. (2020). Right to Erasure in EU Data Protection Law. OXFORD 		University Press. Chapter 2: section 1 and section 2.1 (so until 		page 54) 		<br>☛ 		Read 		about each of your data rights 		https://www.datatilsynet.dk/generelt-om-databeskyttelse/hvad-er-dine-rettigheder 		(DK) 		// https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/ 		(EN)<br>|
| 45   | 06 nov | *workshop*                                                   |                                                              |
| 46   | 12 nov | [Politics 		of Datafication](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/pid-2896791-dt-content-rid-9949307_1/courses/BB-Cou-Hold-35244/11-PoliticsOfDatafication-DataStudies2020%281%29.pdf)                         <br><br>[Socio-Technical Imaginaries of Danish Politics](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1esgz4yL4POB45DHOIiLkZ6xrnxvAIrM9PoKcCjY6O0Y/edit?usp=sharing) <br><br>👻:  8, 15, 19, 13 | ☛ Mejias, U. A. & Couldry, N. (2019). Datafication. Internet Policy Review, 8(4). DOI: [10.14763/2019.4.1428](https://policyreview.info/concepts/datafication)<br>☛ 		Morozov, 		E. 2014. 'The Planning Machine -- Project Cybersyn and the origins 		of the Big Data nation.' The New Yorker. 		https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/planning-machine 			<br>☛ Watch the beginning of this Louis CK Sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ80smxlvbw<br>☛ 		Black, E. 2011. 'How IBM Technology Jump Started the Holocaust'. Gizmodo.  https://gizmodo.com/how-ibm-technology-jump-started-the-holocaust-5812025<br>☛ 		(Optional) Tupasela, 		A., Snell, K., & Tarkkala, H. (2020). The Nordic data 		imaginary. Big Data & Society, 7(1). 		https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2053951720907107 |
| 46   | 13 nov | *workshop*                                                   | ✨ 		Presentations 		mini-project 04              |
| 47   | 19 nov | 🧱 		**BLOCK 		5: DATA LOGIC & RESISTANCE TACTICS** 		<br><br> [Data surveillance and capture](https://hackmd.io/@ds20/SJmX0xQ9D) <br><br>👻: 1, 14, 21, 4 | ☛ A. Agre, Philip E. 1994. ‘Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy’. The Information Society 10 (2): 101–27.<br> ☛ Hear (podcast) Reply All, The Crime Machine ([part I](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2hx34/) and [part II](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/n8hwl7)) [75 mins.]                                                         |
| 47   | 20 nov | *workshop* <span style="color:red">(online)</span>                                                  |                                                              |
| 48   | 26 nov | [Data resistance](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/pid-2916726-dt-content-rid-10112565_1/courses/BB-Cou-Hold-35244/13-DataResistance-DataStudies2020.pdf) <br><br>👻: 2, 16, 18, 5                                                     | No required readings. <br><br>Suggested readings by Pablo relevant for the final project: <br>☛ [Venturini T, Bounegru L, Gray J, Rogers R. A reality check(list) for digital methods. New Media & Society. 2018;20(11):4195-4217. doi:10.1177/1461444818769236](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444818769236)<br> ☛ [Rieder, Bernhard. “Programmed Method: Developing a Toolset for Capturing and Analyzing Tweets.” Aslib journal of information management. 66.3 (2014): 262–278. Web.](https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AJIM-09-2013-0094/full/html)                                                        |
| 48   | 27 nov | *workshop*   <span style="color:red">(online)</span>                                                | ✨ 		Presentations 		mini-project 05              |
| 49   | 03 dec |**[WRAP-UP SESSION]**   <br><br>👻: 7, 11, 22, 13                                        | ✨✨✨ 		Final 		presentations                      |
| 49   | 04 dec | *workshop*                                                   | ✨✨✨ 		Final 		presentations                      |
| 01 | 04 jan | Exam submission | *subject to changes


### 👾 USEFUL LINKS
#### Digital Methods
* Digital Methods Initiative: https://digitalmethods.net 
* Mapping Online Publics Online: http://mappingonlinepublics.net/
* Issuemapping: http://issuemapping.net/  
* Science Po medialab: https://medialab.sciencespo.fr/tools/  
* Mapping controversies: http://mappingcontroversies.net (offline, but accessible through the internet archive’s wayback machine)
* Open Data Index: https://index.okfn.org/
#### Datasets
* Harvard Dataverse: https://dataverse.org/
* TWITTER: https://about.twitter.com/en_us/values/elections-integrity.html#data
* FACEBOOK: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/EIAACS
* ACADEMIC: http://academictorrents.com/
* GLOBAL (worldbank): https://databank.worldbank.org/
* US: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset
* EUROPE: https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset
* DENMARK (statistics): https://www.statbank.dk
* GOOGLE: https://toolbox.google.com/datasetsearch
* AWS opendata: https://registry.opendata.aws/
* CONCEPTNET: http://conceptnet.io/
* CORPORA: small corpuses: https://github.com/dariusk/corpora
* OPENDOAR: open access repositories: http://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar/
* other lists: https://www.kdnuggets.com/datasets/index.html
#### Coding
* Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/learn
* ReplIt: https://repl.it/ also online python editor: https://repl.it/languages/python3
* Dataquest: https://www.dataquest.io/
#### Podcasts
* Data Stories https://datastori.es/             
* Note to Self https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/notetoself
* Reply All https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all

## 📃 Academic regulation (excerpts)

Purpose:
>The purpose of the course is to enable students to critically consider the production and use of data to conclude and communicate general conditions in the world and in digital environments such as the Internet and social media. In addition, the course aims at enabling students to use digital tools in the collection, analysis and assessment of data.

>The course provides an insight into the production and use of data and into theories and concepts about the role of data in society. Students will work with theories, concepts, qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate and reflect on data production and use. Students will use and, to a small extent, develop specific IT-tools to study large amounts of data and relations in data in order to consider data quality and data impact.

>The course is relevant for carrying out studies e.g. about user behaviour, relationships within and between people, and within and between digital elements, as students learn how to use digital methodological skills in the collection, processing and communication of data. The course complements the methods and study practices used in the courses Organisation Ethnography and Digital Communication and builds on the technical competences developed in the programming course.

Academic objectives:
>In the evaluation of the students’ performance, emphasis is placed on the extent to which the student is able to:

Knowledge:
>- Demonstrate an understanding of the role of data in society
>- Critically reflect on the use of data to conclude general conditions in the world and in digital environments

Skills:
>- Use digital tools to collect, analyse and present data
>- Critically reflect on the production and use of data in specific cases

Competences:
>- Critically analyse and consider the role of data in society, as well as the use and design of digital technologies for data collection and production


Comments on form of instruction:
>The course is a combination of large classes (e.g. lectures) and student presentations, and may include teaching in smaller groups and/or exercises. The course may also include compulsory assignments, peer feedback etc.

Exam options:

>Attendance is a prerequisite for taking the exam, cf. the general rules of the academic regulations, including the submission and approval of a collection of assignments. The number of assignments, their form (individual and/or group-based, written and/or oral, set and/or on a topic of the student’s choice), scope as well as the deadline for submission will be announced on Blackboard by the teacher at the start of the semester.

>The exam is a take-home assignment on a topic of the student’s choice, in which the student analyses and assesses independently selected cases, applying the theories, concepts and methods presented during the course. Length: 10-12 standard pages.

Full academic regulation [here](https://eddiprod.au.dk/EDDI/webservices/DokOrdningService.cfc?method=visGodkendtOrdning&dokOrdningId=13813&sprog=en).

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