D’Ignazio, Catherine and Lauren F. Klein. 2020. Data Feminism. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
- Paperback $27.95
- Hardcover $32.95
- ISBN 9780262547185
- 328 pages
Review by Abby Cole
Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein’s (2020) Data Feminism serves as a comprehensive introduction to feminist theory and scholars, marking it an essential read for anyone interested in applying a feminist method to their work. However, as journalists consider emerging practices that can help reestablish trust with their audiences, considering how journalism can be reformed to focus on interrogating systemic issues allows it to serve its social responsibility. By contributing to social change, authentic audience interactions will naturally occur. Therefore, journalists can connect with this book and consider how a feminist critical approach to data science can help fight against oppression and interrogate the matrix of domination. Through a proposal of seven core principles, the authors argue that advocacy and work toward equality must recognize intersectionality in efforts to work toward justice.
Additionally, data feminism critiques not only the use of data but also its limitations, as informed by direct experience, commitments to action, and intersectional feminist thought (2020, 8). Furthermore, the authors emphasize that data feminism is for everyone. Therefore, it focuses on how power is utilized and withheld to confront the world’s injustices and challenge the status quo.
Through textual and discourse analysis of black feminist scholars and activists and data science examples, the authors focus on intersectionality and the matrix of domination, framing their work around two influential feminist scholars, Kimberle Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins. Crenshaw asserts that intersectionality refers to the multiple layers of oppression that exist among marginalized groups. Collins (2000) extends intersectionality and offers the matrix of domination to demonstrate how “structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal domains of power reappear across quite different forms of oppression” (18), which can be applied to any oppressed group. A close reading of various data visualizations and media projects, such as Atlas of Caregivers and the Alia app, illustrate the argument to include a multitude of identities and perspectives to embrace the situated experiences from people on the margins. This feminist understanding of situated knowledges also informs the authors’ seven core principles of: examine power, challenge power, elevate emotion and embodiment, rethink binaries and hierarchies, embrace pluralism, consider context, and make labor visible (2020, 17-18). The chapters are organized around each principle, with the inclusion of relevant close readings of data visualizations as they apply. This approach demonstrates that by challenging power structures, one can expose and interrogate existing injustices and inequalities, noting that the matrix of domination links to the root cause of structural oppression (2020, 61).
In Chapter 1, the authors introduce the concept of privilege hazard to emphasize how those in power fail to recognize oppression in life and culture, which in turn gets embedded into data systems, reinforcing the systemic oppression that is part of daily lives. The historical practices of redlining as they appear in big data practices today are detailed in Chapter 2 to illustrate the reinforcement of systemic issues where the wealthy and white remain dominant and privileged. Making a direct connection to the feminist understanding of the “god trick” in Chapter 3, the authors argue that assumptions about neutrality are part of data visualization practices (2020, 76) and therefore encourage embracing emotion and embodiment through data visualization as a way to push against false binaries and Western stereotypes. Chapter 4 analyzes how companies have the power to enforce classification systems which control data collection, therefore, these practices need to be improved, revised, or removed (2020, 100). Data feminism uses this thinking to rethink binaries, such as gender and race, and hierarchies, such as major corporations, to pay attention to overlooked histories and hold those in power accountable as a way toward a more just future. An understanding about situated experiences shapes Chapter 5 as the authors argue that data science should embrace pluralism in efforts to give voice to the various perspectives that narrativize a visualization to make greater meaning and support data feminist goals. A focus on context in Chapter 6 demonstrates that data are not neutral or objective, and therefore a situated understanding of the social, cultural, historical, institutional implications, as well as power structures that contribute to the production of data, which can alter the truth (152-3) is needed. The final chapter is devoted to the invisible labor of data as the authors argue that making labor visible increases recognition and value, which gives credit to those who are historically marginalized, while also drawing attention to negative environmental impacts related to data work.
The authors reference the work of journalists and data journalism throughout the book, making a direct connection between feminist theory and journalistic practice. As media scholars analyze the transitioning field of journalism, applying feminist thought to practices that inform justice is one way to establish trust and relevance as the field responds to declining trust and post-truth. This book specifically contributes to journalism through its analysis of infrastructures of power, narratives, assumed neutrality of data, and suggestions for journalistic practice. The overall theme of infrastructures of power reinforcing systemic oppression is necessary for understanding ways to interrogate data so that it can be used as an act of justice. In considering the influence of narratives, the authors (2020) are attentive to the impact of deficit narratives (59) in media, which can help inform thoughts about journalism as a medium for social justice. Furthermore, they analyze how the interpretation of data can impact the framing of the story (166), emphasizing that journalists should consider the context of the study that they pull data from to inform visual representations. Being mindful about the original context of information and how it can be manipulated in new context is essential as journalists utilize data as a way to support their reporting. The arguments and contributions made by D’Ignazio and Klein emphasize how journalists’ analysis of data, and thus the audience’s interpretation, can alter ideas of the truth, marking this book essential in helping journalists understand the true impact of utilizing data through a feminist lens. Therefore, the use of reflexivity in transparently publishing methods of data collection in data journalism (137) could help provide a more robust account of journalistic practices that supports the thinking that data is never neutral given the tendency to always produce biased output that reflects the inequalities of the world.
One specific way that the authors illuminate feminist thinking is through the suggestion to embrace feminist objectivity, and thus standpoints and positionality. In this way, one can value the perspectives that inform work, rather than see bias as a threat. This connects to a feminist approach to journalism that would center on the idea of embracing the unique perspectives of individuals to form more developed research and thus journalistic reporting that pushes against the status quo. Regarding data visualization practices specifically, the authors suggest utilizing visceralization methods to allow viewers to experience the data through an affective way. They argue that this ultimately leads to better retention and understanding of the information, a practice that has been considered as journalists experiment with the use of immersive technologies to explore a more affective experience of real-world events. Additionally, the authors highlight that attention must also be given to represent the uncertainty in data visualizations, which is often misinterpreted as certainty, causing confusion and ultimately misinformation. Therefore, the authors suggest an interpretation of data visualization, similar to a type of disclaimer to a journalist’s positionality, to be present in the representation of information. They recognize that this can counter traditional practices aimed at neutrality in journalism, but that these practices do the important work of emphasizing bias in systemic ways.
The authors’ explicit suggestion that journalists should consider positionality and interpret the data for the readers (2020, 166) goes against the neutrality of the reporter, and should therefore be given more attention in the book. This controversial recommendation to abandon the traditional practices that place the reporter outside of the issues as a neutral observer warrants more development to answer questions about interrogating objectivity rituals among the profession and their potential risks and benefits. Questions around the objectivity of a reporter, especially as the field contends with declining trust, need careful consideration to inform future ideals for the profession. An analysis on the human bias inherent in any reporting would strengthen this critique of traditional journalistic practices of “objectivity” in a way that would make this recommendation of interpreting data more applicable for journalists.
Overall, this book brings prominent feminist scholars and theories into conversation with data science and aligned fields to do the important work of uncovering practices that contribute to injustice. The authors contribute to existing work in efforts to inform new methods for considering how data can be used for good. While this book is specific to data feminism, the principles offered by the authors can be utilized to apply feminist thought and critical analysis among a variety of fields.
References
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black feminist thought, knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Second Edition
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1994. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” In Living with Contradictions, 39–52. 1st ed. Routledge.