Abstract: The digitalization and the development of machine learning have created new opportunities to utilize data, both in the private and public sectors. This has made data governance a key challenge for both individuals and organizations. Good data governance requires understanding what data is and a grasp of the complex socio-legal-technical issues related to it. In other words, it requires data literacy. Data literacy can be defined as understanding how data is generated, processed, analyzed, and presented. In this talk, I will discuss how data literacy should be conceptualized and the interesting research questions it raises. I will use examples from the research project Data Literacy and Responsible Decision-Making that aims at understandable and trustworthy practices for utilizing Finnish health, social, and welfare data.

Speaker: Petri Ylikoski is Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University. Petri started his career as a philosopher, defending his dissertation in 2001. Petri has always seen himself at crossroads between philosophy and social sciences, so a position in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (since 2012) is a natural fit for him. His current research focuses on the foundations of mechanism-based social science, institutional epistemology, and the social consequences of artificial intelligence. Petri leads the SRC-funded interdisciplinary research project Data Literacy and Responsible Decision-Making, aiming at understandable and trustworthy practices utilizing Finnish health, social, and welfare data.

Affiliation: University of Helsinki

Place of Seminar:  Zoom

Meeting ID: 639 8752 5937
Passcode: 170532