Datafication Dilemmas: Data Governance in the Public Interest

Within CSCW, there is a robust body of literature examining the infrastructures, institutions, and labor processes enabling pervasive processes of datafication. Key public sectors and industries are being increasingly datafied, often in the service of implementing AI tools to improve the efficiency, efficacy, and equity of public goods and services. This panel specifically examines the role of CSCW scholars in advancing public-interest technologies by engaging with datafication through the register of data governance. Each panelist brings perspectives from diverse domains of datafication - including healthcare, education, and agriculture - and state, corporate, and community forms of data governance. We invite panelists and attendees to explore a series of provocations focused on reconceptualizing our role and responsibility as researchers in intervening in processes of datafication and data governance.