Data types and functions : a study of framing devices and techniques

This thesis contributes to the sociology and anthropology of data by examining the techniques and devices that are deployed to frame data as part of methodological, ethical, economic, digital, journalistic and artistic practices. The thesis starts by tracing the lineage of the concept of frame as part of the traditions of cybernetic anthropology, artificial intelligence, social interactionism and science and technology studies to delineate a conceptual framework that can account for the contextualisation of data. Empirically, the project focuses on two data leaks and repurposes the materials that emerged from these as case studies that render visible how different techniques and devices make possible the formation of two distinctive data types: personal data and prices. The first case study examines the making and unmaking of search keywords as personal and it is based on the materials that arose from the leak of a search engine database in 2006. This case study looks at how techniques like reidentification demonstrations and data sequencing have contributed to define search keywords as being about and capable of signalling persons while also investigating how ethical devices like informed consent and anonymisation work to depersonalise data instead. The second case study compares compositional against disaggregated framings of prices and it is based on the materials that became available as a consequence of the attempted disclosure of the databases used to estimate a national inflation indicator in Argentina since 2006. This case study explores how product identification and data aggregation techniques contribute to frame the fluctuation of prices as part of the measurement and communication of national statistics while also studying digital scraping and imaging as devices that frame the observation and interpretation of retail price variation for financial use

DH Benelux Journal 3. DH Benelux Online

The third volume of the DH Benelux Journal. This volume includes six full-length, peer-reviewed articles that are based on accepted contributions to the 2020 virtual DH Benelux conference. Contents: 1. Editor's Preface (Wout Dillen, Marijn Koolen, Marieke van Erp); 2. Introduction: Digital Humanities Online (Antske Fokkens, Christian Gosvig Olesen); 3. I Catching. Computationally Operationalising Narrative Perspective for Stylometric Analysis (Lisanne M. van Rossum, Joris J. van Zundert, Karina van Dalen-Oskam); 4. Reconstructing Gavin Douglas’s Translation Practice in the Eneados Using a Corpus Linguistic-Based Method (Megan Bushnell); 5. Using Linked Data to Track and Trace Processes of Canonization in Early Modern Dutch Literature (Harm Nijboer, Lieke van Deinsen, Leon van Wissen, Judith Brouwer, Ton van Strien, Frans Blom); 6. Vehemence and Victims: Emotion Mining Historical Parliamentary Debates on War Victims in the Netherlands (Milan van Lange and Ralf Futselaar); 7. #Bookstagram and Beyond. The Presence and Depiction of the Bachmann Literary Prize on Social Media (2007-2017) (Lore De Greve, Gunther Martens); 8. The Digital Humanities Classroom as a “Node”. From Toolbox to Mindset? (Florentina Armaselu)

A non-destructive technical and stylistic comparative analysis of selected metal artefacts from the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History

The destructive nature of conventional analytical techniques, coupled with the finite nature of ancient/historical artefacts, has long restricted technical examinations of museum collections, mainly due to ethical constraints. However, over the past few decades, the application of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques has become increasingly popular within the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage diagnostics. The application of such techniques has facilitated the examination of objects that have long remained uninvestigated. However, this positive development also held a slight drawback, in that researchers tend to now focus on technical analyses alone, while excluding more traditional means of analyses, such as comparative stylistic analysis and surface investigation. By employing a combination of stylistic analysis, visual surface investigation (by means of SLR photography and digital microscopy) and nuclear imaging (by means of Microfocus X-Ray Computed Tomography), the thesis sets out to justify the application of mixed methodologies as part of a more holistic integrated authentication approach. Thus stated, the thesis presents a mixed-methodological approach towards the analysis of selected metal objects from the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History in Pretoria, South Africa. The objects under investigation include a small collection of ancient Egyptian bronze statuettes, a Samurai helmet (kabuto) and mask (menpó), a European gauntlet, and an Arabian dagger (jambiya/khanjar). While all the objects are curated as part of the museum’s archaeology and military history collections, the exact production dates, manufacturing techniques and areas of origin remain a mystery. By using a combination of techniques, the thesis aims to identify diagnostic features that can be used to shed light on their relative age, culturo-chronological framework and, by extension, their authenticity.Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studie

The Diasporic Sublime in the Works of Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The doctoral research aims to redefine the theory of the sublime within the transcultural identities through the works of Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The involvement and elevation of Indian American women in migration has not been emphasised enough in the discussion of indentured labour, globalization and effects of cultural appropriation. Considering the German traditions of aesthetics, specifically Immanuel Kant’s theorization of the sublime in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beauty and the Sublime (1790/2011), the dissertation focuses to challenge the specific Kantian notion of female inability to be the sovereign and elevated (sublime) subject. ‘Diasporic sublime’ hence highlights the journey of Indian immigrant women in the United States of America and facing the conflicts to reach the sublime state of body and mind. The dissertation structures the conceptualisation of the postcolonial fear, power and agency through the changes of body, food and home to evince the manifestation of the sublime. Following the contemporary works of Christina Battersby, Bonnie Mann and Barbara Claire Freeman, the dissertation renegotiates the term sublime as a process to confront the submissive identity, dehumanised socio-economical state of immigrant women

Expanding Data Imaginaries in Urban Planning:Foregrounding lived experience and community voices in studies of cities with participatory and digital visual methods

“Expanding Data Imaginaries in Urban Planning” synthesizes more than three years of industrial research conducted within Gehl and the Techno–Anthropology Lab at Aalborg University. Through practical experiments with social media images, digital photovoice, and participatory mapmaking, the project explores how visual materials created by citizens can be used within a digital and participatory methodology to reconfigure the empirical ground of data-driven urbanism. Drawing on a data feminist framework, the project uses visual research to elevate community voices and situate urban issues in lived experiences. As a Science and Technology Studies project, the PhD also utilizes its industrial position as an opportunity to study Gehl’s practices up close, unpacking collectively held narratives and visions that form a particular “data imaginary” and contribute to the production and perpetuation of the role of data in urban planning. The dissertation identifies seven epistemological commitments that shape the data imaginary at Gehl and act as discursive closures within their practice. To illustrate how planners might expand on these, the dissertation uses its own data experiments as speculative demonstrations of how to make alternative modes of knowing cities possible through participatory and digital visual methods

The role of online social networks in the wellbeing of highly skilled migrants: a case-study of an online forum for Russian-speaking migrants in the UK

This study aims to investigate the role of online social networks in highly skilled migrants’ wellbeing. The research focused on Russian-speaking migrants in the UK. It was designed around a case study of a Russian-speaking online forum for migrants in the UK. The literature on migration, wellbeing, integration, social networks and social media were researched to establish a conceptual framework and position the study within a larger field of research. A mixed-methods approach was used, employing literature review and primary research to collect and analyse data from an online forum scrape and an online survey. The forum was scraped for a period of 12 months and analysed using social networks and statistical analysis in R. An online survey was administered via social media and analysed using statistical analysis in SPSS. Ethical issues regarding online social media data research have been considered and addressed. The findings suggest that there is no direct link between online networks and migrants’ life satisfaction. However, there is evidence that online networks play a role in wellbeing through links with integration and social support. Online networks contribute to integration through providing information support to improve migrants’ knowledge of host communities; and emotional/affirmation support to affirm their socio-cultural identities. The findings revealed that migrants with links to the host country reported higher levels of wellbeing, whereas migrants with stronger links to the home country reported lower levels of wellbeing. These results indicate that migrants’ wellbeing and integration is strongly linked to developing bridging social capital in the host country. Online social networks can be instrumental in this. The study will contribute to knowledge on migration, online networks, social support and the ethics of online research. It will inform academics, practitioners and the wider public on the role of migrants’ social networks in their wellbeing

Scientific and Parascientific Communication

There is an increasing need for scholars and scientists to not only conduct research that has a significant impact on society but also to communicate that research widely. Such research outreach also contributes to engaging wide, diverse audiences. As such, the discursive practices have become more and more complex, multimodal, and multimedia-based for scholars and scientists. Scientific communication is currently shared to a great extent with peers in technology-mediated contexts, which allows formal scientific publications to be opened to public viewing. Alongside this so-called “primary output” (Puschmann 2015), new ways, modes, and discourses are being used to bring science closer to a lay audience and promote citizen participation. The affordances of existing and emergent platforms are fostering a change in audience roles, and with it, the erosion of boundaries between scientific communities and the general public, entailing the dissemination of scientific information and knowledge beyond the former (Trench 2008). We are thus witnessing the development of discursive practices which may be referred to as instances of “parascientific communication”. These practices transcend previously well-delimited communities and spheres of communication. Parascientific genres are evolving based on authoritative or expert knowledge (communicated through conventional, sanctioned scientific genres) but not subjected to the filters of internal, formal science communication (Kelly and Miller 2016). This Special Issue seeks to gain a better understanding of the purposes and specific features of these new scientific communication practices