Government 282 - Colloquium: The Politics of Data

This course explores the political implications of the Big Data era through a focus on how data has corresponded with power throughout history.Discussions include the development of statistics (“science of the state”) for taxation and government census; the parsing of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor in social welfare programs; surveillance practices for policing and national security; data protection and regulation of online spaces; and the implications of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Special attention is given to the ways in which new data technologies have driven social change. Prerequisite: one course in quantitative methods, such as GOV 203. Enrollment limited to 20.