How to use data as a tool for empowerment rather than oppression.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Using "Data | Action"
Chapter 1: Big Data for Cities is Not New
Chapter 2: Build It! Data is Never Raw, It's Collected
Chapter 3: Hack It! Using Data Creatively
Chapter 4: Share It! Communicating Data Insights
Chapter 5: Private Data for a Public Good
Conclusion: More Than Data, It's How We Work With It
Notes
Sarah Williams is Associate Professor of Technology and Urban Planning at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, where she is also Director of the Civic Data Design Lab. Trained in geography, landscape architecture, and urban planning, she was named one of the Top 25 Leading Thinkers in Urban Planning and Technology by Planetizen and 2012 Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine. Her designs and visualizations have been widely exhibited.
“The work is accessible and uncomplicated. Readers will not get the
sense that Williams is sitting alone in an armchair musing about
her thoughts and generating ideas in isolation, but rather that her
boots have been on the ground and her passport stamped. The
narration is honest and transparent—Williams seems to know you’re
busy, too—but inspiring for planners who find themselves hesitant
to try something new. We need such encouragement.
Finally, this work is useful for the planning profession and
discipline, especially for those who think algorithmic bias and
data production issues are confined to Silicon Valley and are
searching for a bridge to translate the power issues behind tech
and data into urban planning terms. It is appropriate for
urbanists, imaginative planning practitioners, academics, and
students, and with its glossy pages, heaps of color figures, and
landscape layout, the coffee table will enjoy it as well.”
-- the Journal of the American Planning Association
“Data Action—a perfect fusion of historical framing, critical
reflection, and how-to instruction—powerfully demonstrates how
collaborative, methodologically pluralistic, reflective, and
publicly responsive modes of data design can incite civic
change.”
--Shannon Mattern, Professor of Anthropology, The New School;
author of Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: 5000 Years of Urban
Media
“There is nobody who understands the theory and practice of engaged
civic data visualization better than Sarah Williams. Her
reflective, absolutely fearless guide to the complexities of
knowledge and power in this often-thorny domain distills her
decades of experience into a single, indispensable volume—a pure
gift to the aspiring practitioner.”
-- Adam Greenfield, author of Radical Technologies: The Design of
Everyday Life
“Data Action is a much needed, accessible guide to our complex
digital world. Writing with clarity, Williams curates both
appalling and inspiring examples to move us to act.”
-- Annette Kim, Director of SLAB, Associate Professor at the
University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy
“Sarah Williams is an urbanist and a designer—and Data Action asks
about the ways in which we can use data to reshape urban space.
Some of them are not so good. For those interested in the history
of the interactions between urban planning and spatial data, for
better and for worse, this book tells a compelling story. You will
learn to stand your ground and insist that data be used responsibly
in making cities and urban life better. For Williams, this is a
matter of the utmost ethical and political urgency, of action. So,
she weaves her own design work and breathtaking maps into a complex
history of geographic information systems, a field that needs to be
reckoned with if we want to take action. Williams performs this
reckoning with didactic precision and fresh design strategies that
demand our attention.”
--Laura Kurgan, Professor of Architecture and Director, Center for
Spatial Research, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and
Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University
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