How Data-Driven Research and    
Digital Methods Challenge Research    
Practice and Ethics

Abstract

The Utrecht Data School is an interdisciplinary research platform for data analysis and data visualization. Catering to the increasing need of teaching methods of data analysis, the Utrecht Data School provides students with a hands-on approach to conduct commissioned data-driven research. These projects - commissioned by corporations, NGO's and public administrations- are all situated within the overall research focus of investigating a transforming public sphere, citizen participation, and knowledge development.

Over the past year, the Utrecht Data School carried out 10 research projects, hosted two hackathons, won a KIEM grant, and a grant from Oxfam Novib's Women, Peace and Security program. In doing so, we developed a process of working with tools for data analysis, reflecting critically about the impact of knowledge technologies on epistemic processes, and provided students and researchers with the opportunity to observe the societal transformation where it is actually taking place. The data school emerged here as a platform for explorative research, for experimenting with novel ways of approaching research objects and of cooperation between scholars and students, university and commercial companies, public administrations and NGO’s.  The Utrecht Data School connects insights from digital born evidence with qualitative research in the actual environment of policy and decision-making, information processing, media production, and labor. This enabled us to investigating the impact of digital technologies on public sphere, citizen participation and knowledge development. However, it also radically changed the way we have conducted research earlier. Cooperation between various disciplines.

Drawing from this experience, this paper discusses the new role of data for humanities scholars. Building on case examples –an open data project database, an analysis of political communication on Twitter, an analysis of data visualization software this paper aims at raising awareness for three crucial aspects in future internet research:

1.  research ethics; how do digital methods and novel ways of cooperation affect research practice?
2. researcher integrity and autonomy; how does the expert role of researchers affect the very field they study?
3. research practice; how to address critically data, tools for data analysis and visualization? Which new literacies do we need to develop?

The new situation of vast data repositories, easy accessible digital born evidence and analysis tools changes the way scholars address their research objects and alters the way researchers disseminate their expertise. Our programmatic paper calls for a very much needed interdisciplinary discussion of research practice and ethics.