Professor Jo Bates
BA (Keele), MA (Nottingham), MA (Manchester Metropolitan), PhD (Manchester Metropolitan)
Information School
Professor of Data and Society
Full contact details
Information School
Room C223
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91直播
S10 2AH
- Profile
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My academic background is in Politics and American Studies, which I studied before training to be a librarian and from there developing my academic career in data studies. I joined the Information School at 91直播 as a lecturer in 2012, shortly before completing my PhD on the politics of Open Government Data in the UK.
More recently, my research has explored cultures of data science practice; the social, cultural and political economic shaping of data flows 鈥 particularly climate data flows; and labour issues in crowdwork platforms. I have received a range of funding to work on these topics, including two AHRC grants as PI (Secret Life of a Weather Datum 2014-15 and Patterns in Practice 2021-24). My 2017 paper on 鈥楧ata Friction鈥 published in Journal of Documentation was awarded a highly commended Emerald Literati Award.
I have been co-organiser of the international Data Power conference since it began in 2015, and I am currently part of the conference management team. I am also on the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Big Data and Society and a member of the AHRC鈥檚 Peer Review College.
My research interests inform my teaching practice. Over recent years, I have led efforts to embed data politics and ethics teaching into the Information School鈥檚 Data Science degrees, and led research on this topic that I presented at ACM FAccT 2020.
You can find out more about my work on my website:
University responsibilities
- Information School REF Co-ordinator
- Head of Digital Societies Research Group
- Research interests
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My research is in the field of Critical Data Studies. Critical Data Studies is an interdisciplinary field that uses critical social theory to examine the social drivers, implications and power relations of emergent forms of data and algorithmic practices.
My recent research broadly breaks down into four thematic areas: data cultures, data journeys & friction, climate and environmental data, and digital labour. You can read more about my research in each of these areas on .
I am currently working on the following projects, which involve collaborations with a variety of organisations including GSK, JISC, BBC and DWP:
- Patterns in Practice (Principal Investigator). AHRC funded.
- Living with Data (Co-investigator). Nuffield funded.
- Climate data-sharing scoping study (PI). Internally funded.
I am interested in supervising PhD projects that advance the critical study of emerging data and algorithmic practices and flows. By critical I mean projects that in some way grapple with issues of power, ethics and justice as they relate to topics of data, automation, data science and AI. I tend to use qualitative research methods, including ethnographic methods and (policy) document analysis. There is a wide range of potential projects in this area. Applicants are advised to check out recent papers in key journals such as to get a sense for emerging topics.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
- Edited books
- Journal articles
- Chapters
- Conference proceedings papers
- Reports
- Website content
- Theses / Dissertations
- Working papers
Edited books
- Dialogues in Data Power: Shifting response-abilities in a datafied world. Bristol University Press.
Journal articles
- . Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 30(6), 2025-2041.
- . Big Data & Society, 11(4).
- . Journal of Documentation.
- . Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 21(3), 342-357.
- . Urban Studies, 59(14), 2933-2950.
- . Online Information Review, 44(2), 321-323.
- . The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 67(2020), 375-408.
- . Online Information Review, 43(6), 945-951.
- . Journal of Documentation, 75(4), 791-806.
- . Television and New Media, 18(8), 701-705.
- . Television and New Media, 18(8), 753-768.
- . Journal of Documentation, 74(2), 412-429.
- . Big Data & Society, 3(2), 205395171665450-205395171665450.
- Co-observing the Weather, Co-predicting the Climate: Human Factors in Building Infrastructures for Crowdsourced Data. Science and Technology Studies, 29(3).
- . Government Information Quarterly, 31(3), 388-395.
- . Policy and Internet, 5(1), 118-137.
- 鈥淭his is what modern deregulation looks like鈥 : co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the UK鈥檚 Open Government Data Initiative. Journal of Community Informatics, 8(2).
- . Journal of Documentation, 67(3), 431-448.
- How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. Big Data and Society.
Chapters
- In Hepp A, Jarke J & Kramp L (Ed.), New Perspectives in Critical Data Studies : The Ambivalences of Data Power (pp. 415-443). Palgrave Macmillan
- In Elliott A (Ed.), The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI Routledge
- Big data, open data and the climate risk market In Brevini B & Murdock G (Ed.), Carbon Capitalism and Communication (pp. 83-93). Palgrave Macmillan
- , Data and the City (pp. 189-200).
Conference proceedings papers
- . FAT* '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp 425-435). Barcelona, Spain, 27 January 2020 - 27 January 2020.
- . iConference 2019 Proceedings
- . Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp 6136-6140). Macao, 10 August 2019 - 10 August 2019.
- All That Glitters Is Gold - An Attack Scheme on Gold Questions in Crowdsourcing.. HCOMP (pp 2-11)
- . Transforming Digital Worlds (pp 243-252)
- . Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp 6620-6631). Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO, 6 May 2017 - 6 May 2017.
- Data Journeys as an approach for exploring the socio-cultural shaping of (big) data: the case of climate science in the United Kingdom. Iconference 2015 Proceedings (pp 1-16)
- Mapping Data Journeys: Design for an interactive web site. iConference 2015 Proceedings (pp 1-4)
- Information policy in the crises of neoliberalism: the case of Open Government Data in the UK. IAMCR 2013. Dublin
- Socio-Technical Transitions Pathways for UK Open Government Data. ACM Web Science 2013
- Building consent: strategy and power in the development of the United Kingdom鈥檚 Open Government Data initiative. International Political Science Association 22nd World Congress of Political Science. Madrid, 8 July 2012 - 12 July 2012.
- Exploring the life of patient data in the UK healthcare sector. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020(2020: AoIR2020)
Reports
- Public perceptions of BBC data uses in experiments which give people more control of data
- Public perceptions of DWP鈥檚 uses of data for identity verification
- Public perceptions of sharing and aggregating health data
- Report on Living With Data Interviews & Focus
Groups
- Living with Data survey report
- Public understanding and perceptions of data practices: a review of existing research
- The Use of AI in Housing, Welfare, and Social Care: Scoping Review
Website content
- Towards a critical data science 鈥 the complicated relationship between data and the democratic project. Retrieved from
- The progressive ideals behind Open Government Data are being used to further interests of the neoliberal state. Retrieved from
- Big data lets global corps bet on the threat of climate change. Retrieved from
Theses / Dissertations
- Politics of Open Government Data: A Neo-Gramscian Analysis of the United Kingdom's Open Government Data Initiative.
Working papers
- Data Cultures, Power and the City. Programmable Cities: Data and the City.
- Climate Risk, Big Data and the Weather Market. SPERI, 13.
All publications
- Edited books
- Journal articles
- Chapters
- Conference proceedings papers
- Reports
- Website content
- Theses / Dissertations
- Working papers
- Presentations
Edited books
- Dialogues in Data Power: Shifting response-abilities in a datafied world. Bristol University Press.
Journal articles
- . Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 30(6), 2025-2041.
- . Big Data & Society, 11(4).
- . Journal of Documentation.
- . Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 21(3), 342-357.
- . Urban Studies, 59(14), 2933-2950.
- . IASSIST Quarterly, 45(3-4).
- . ACM SIGIR Forum, 55(1).
- Report on the CyCAT winter school on fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics (FATE) in AI.. SIGIR Forum, 55, 4:1-4:1.
- . Online Information Review, 44(2), 321-323.
- . The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 67(2020), 375-408.
- . Addictive Behaviors, 98.
- . Online Information Review, 43(6), 945-951.
- . Journal of Documentation, 75(4), 791-806.
- . Information in Contemporary Society, 11420, 806-816.
- . Journal of Documentation, 74(5), 951-965.
- . Television and New Media, 18(8), 701-705.
- . Television and New Media, 18(8), 753-768.
- . Journal of Documentation, 74(2), 412-429.
- . Journal of Documentation, 73(2), 317-335.
- . Big Data & Society, 3(2), 205395171665450-205395171665450.
- Co-observing the Weather, Co-predicting the Climate: Human Factors in Building Infrastructures for Crowdsourced Data. Science and Technology Studies, 29(3).
- . Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.
- . Government Information Quarterly, 31(3), 388-395.
- . Policy and Internet, 5(1), 118-137.
- 鈥淭his is what modern deregulation looks like鈥 : co-optation and contestation in the shaping of the UK鈥檚 Open Government Data Initiative. Journal of Community Informatics, 8(2).
- . Journal of Documentation, 67(3), 431-448.
- How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. Big Data and Society.
Chapters
- , Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win (pp. 54-61). Springer Nature Switzerland
- In Hepp A, Jarke J & Kramp L (Ed.), New Perspectives in Critical Data Studies : The Ambivalences of Data Power (pp. 415-443). Palgrave Macmillan
- In Elliott A (Ed.), The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI Routledge
- Everyday activism: challenging neoliberalism for radical library workers in English higher education In Tett L & Hamilton M (Ed.), Resisting Neoliberalism in Education: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives Policy Press
- Big data, open data and the climate risk market In Brevini B & Murdock G (Ed.), Carbon Capitalism and Communication (pp. 83-93). Palgrave Macmillan
- , Data and the City (pp. 189-200).
Conference proceedings papers
- . FAT* '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp 425-435). Barcelona, Spain, 27 January 2020 - 27 January 2020.
- . iConference 2019 Proceedings
- . Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp 6136-6140). Macao, 10 August 2019 - 10 August 2019.
- All That Glitters Is Gold - An Attack Scheme on Gold Questions in Crowdsourcing.. HCOMP (pp 2-11)
- . Transforming Digital Worlds, Vol. 10766 (pp 126-131). 91直播, UK, 25 March 2018 - 25 March 2018.
- . Transforming Digital Worlds (pp 243-252)
- Preface. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 2103 (pp i-ii)
- . iConference 2017 Proceedings (pp 491-497)
- . Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp 6620-6631). Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO, 6 May 2017 - 6 May 2017.
- An exploration of the value of collaborative management of palm-leaf manuscripts as Lanna cultural material in libraries and communities in Thailand.. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Asia-Pacific Library and Information Education and Practice Conference (pp 223-228)
- An exploration of the value of a collaborative model of collection management for Lanna cultural material in libraries in Northern Thailand. IConference 2015 Proceedings (pp 1-4)
- Data Journeys as an approach for exploring the socio-cultural shaping of (big) data: the case of climate science in the United Kingdom. Iconference 2015 Proceedings (pp 1-16)
- Mapping Data Journeys: Design for an interactive web site. iConference 2015 Proceedings (pp 1-4)
- Information policy in the crises of neoliberalism: the case of Open Government Data in the UK. IAMCR 2013. Dublin
- Socio-Technical Transitions Pathways for UK Open Government Data. ACM Web Science 2013
- Building consent: strategy and power in the development of the United Kingdom鈥檚 Open Government Data initiative. International Political Science Association 22nd World Congress of Political Science. Madrid, 8 July 2012 - 12 July 2012.
- . Proceedings of the 18th international symposium on health information management research
- Exploring the life of patient data in the UK healthcare sector. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020(2020: AoIR2020)
- . iConference 2016 Proceedings
Reports
- Public perceptions of BBC data uses in experiments which give people more control of data
- Public perceptions of DWP鈥檚 uses of data for identity verification
- Public perceptions of sharing and aggregating health data
- Report on Living With Data Interviews & Focus
Groups
- Living with Data survey report
- Public understanding and perceptions of data practices: a review of existing research
- The Use of AI in Housing, Welfare, and Social Care: Scoping Review
Website content
- Towards a critical data science 鈥 the complicated relationship between data and the democratic project. Retrieved from
- Life of Data website. Retrieved from
- The progressive ideals behind Open Government Data are being used to further interests of the neoliberal state. Retrieved from
- Big data lets global corps bet on the threat of climate change. Retrieved from
- Productive Freedom and the Political Economy of Hacking. Retrieved from
Theses / Dissertations
- Politics of Open Government Data: A Neo-Gramscian Analysis of the United Kingdom's Open Government Data Initiative.
Working papers
- Data Cultures, Power and the City. Programmable Cities: Data and the City.
- Climate Risk, Big Data and the Weather Market. SPERI, 13.
Presentations
- Open Government Data, Online Collective Action and Policy Change in the UK: a Neo-Gramscian Approach.
- Research group
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I am Head of the Digital Societies Research Group
Current PhD students
- Hadley Beresford: Algorithmic bias: patterns, consequences and alternatives
- Ian Widdows: Secondary school accountability measures in England - their effectiveness, effects and an exploration of alternative approaches.
- Anajoyce Katabalwa: agricultural research data management in Tanzania
- Grants
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Research projects
Arts and Humanities Research Council Principal Investigator 拢458,454 August 2021 - February 2024 Nuffield Foundation Co-Investigator 拢286,543 September 2019 - March 2022 European Commission - Horizon 2020 Advanced Partner 拢999,965 October 2018 - September 2021 Arts and Humanities Research Council Principal Investigator 拢80,185 January 2014 - March 2015
- Teaching interests
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I currently teach on the MSc Data Science programme and the BA Digital Media and Society programme.
I developed the 鈥楧ata and Society鈥 core Data Science module and have co-ordinated and taught that module since 2016. In its current form, the module covers topics such as informational power, bias and discrimination, epistemology, public and artists engagements with data science, legal constraints on data processing, and applied ethics.
I was the Deputy Programme Co-ordinator for the MSc Data Science programme from 2017-2020. As part of this role, I did a lot of work around how best to integrate ideas from critical data studies into Data Science curricula. I presented some of this work at Data Power conference 2017, and more recently led a research project in the Information School exploring our evolving approach to integrating FATE (fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics) and Critical Data Studies into our MSc Data Science. I presented our paper on this research at ACM FAccT 2020. I am continuing to work on this topic with the School鈥檚 Data Science teaching team.
With Helen Kennedy in Sociological Studies, I developed the Faculty of Social Sciences degree BA Digital Media and Society, which we launched in 2017. The core modules of the degree are jointly delivered by the department of Sociological Studies and the Information School, with pathways currently offered by Journalism and Education. We began with a cohort of around 20 in 2017, and this has increased to 115 in 2020. I developed the core first year module 鈥楧igital Media and Society鈥, which I co-ordinated and taught from 2017 to 2021. The module is a large 40-credit module that integrates both social science and web design teaching and assessment. I have now handed the co-ordination of the module over to my colleague Kate Miltner.
- Teaching activities
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INF204 - Ethical Data Management and Governance
INF6033 - Data and Society
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Data Power Conference Management Team (2015 - )
- Big Data and Society Editorial Advisory Board (2015 -)
- AHRC Peer Review Council member (2020 - )
- Member of Association of Internet Researchers
- External examiner at University of Warwick
- Member of ASIS&T