90. All Data is a Social Construct

Outro: St. Lorelei - https://stlorelei.bandcamp.com/track/outside-the-green We kick things off with an announcement about TMK sweeps month. Then we get into a discussion of data politics based on the recent investigation into how ShotSpotter – the “AI-powered” gunshot detector sensors – is being used by police to fabricate fake data for evidence. We wrap up by providing an intro to the political economy of “data grabbing” and precision agriculture – a topic we’ll dive much deeper into on the premium episode this week. Stuff we reference: Todd Feathers | Police Are Telling ShotSpotter to Alter Evidence From Gunshot-Detecting AI | Motherboard Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8xbq/police-are-telling-shotspotter-to-alter-evidence-from-gunshot-detecting-ai Alistair Fraser (2018). Land grab/data grab: precision agriculture and its new horizons. The Journal of Peasant Studies https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1080/03066150.2017.1415887 Alistair Fraser (2019). The digital revolution, data curation, and the new dynamics of food sovereignty construction. The Journal of Peasant Studies https://sci-hub.mksa.top/10.1080/03066150.2019.1602522 Alistair Fraser (2021). ‘You can't eat data’?: Moving beyond the misconfigured innovations of smart farming. Journal of Rural Studies https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743016721001856 Emily Duncan, Alesandros Glaros, Dennis Z. Ross, and Eric Nost (2021). New but for whom? Discourses of innovation in precision agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8278188/ Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab your TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)