Why grassroots data activists in Latin America count feminicideâand how this vital social justice work challenges mainstream data science. What isnât counted doesnât count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women.
Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murdersâand challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work. Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine DâIgnazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account.
Individuals, researchers, and journalistsâthese data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data scienceâthe use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated.
Specifically, DâIgnazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantificationâreducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable formsâwhen the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence. Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world.
Why grassroots data activists in Latin America count feminicideâand how this vital social justice work challenges mainstream data science. What isnât counted doesnât count. And mainstream institutions systematically fail to account for feminicide, the gender-related killing of women and girls, including cisgender and transgender women. Against this failure, Counting Feminicide brings to the fore the work of data activists across the Americas who are documenting such murdersâand challenging the reigning logic of data science by centering care, memory, and justice in their work.
Drawing on Data Against Feminicide, a large-scale collaborative research project, Catherine DâIgnazio describes the creative, intellectual, and emotional labor of feminicide data activists who are at the forefront of a data ethics that rigorously and consistently takes power and people into account. Individuals, researchers, and journalistsâthese data activists scour news sources to assemble spreadsheets and databases of women killed by gender-related violence, then circulate those data in a variety of creative and political forms. Their work reveals the potential of restorative/transformative data scienceâthe use of systematic information to, first, heal communities from the violence and trauma produced by structural inequality and, second, envision and work toward the world in which such violence has been eliminated.
Specifically, DâIgnazio explores the possibilities and limitations of counting and quantificationâreducing complex social phenomena to convenient, sortable, aggregable formsâwhen the goal is nothing short of the elimination of gender-related violence. Counting Feminicide showcases the incredible power of data feminism in practice, in which each murdered woman or girl counts, and, in being counted, joins a collective demand for the restoration of rights and a transformation of the gendered order of the world.
Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn't âfather materialâ before her daughter was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard...and lonely.
But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that's predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly's founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can't wrap her head around because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate.
But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we'll pay you. Jessâwho is barely making ends meetâis in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the âDiamondâ pairing that could launch GeneticAlly's valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientistâand the science behind a soulmateâthan she thought.
The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.
Once upon a time, the world was neatly divided into prosperous and backward economies. Babies were plentiful, workers outnumbered retirees, and people aspiring towards the middle class yearned to own homes and cars. That worldâand those rulesâare over. By 2030, a new reality will take hold, and before you know it:
There will be more grandparents than grandchildren
The middle-class in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will outnumber the US and Europe combined
The global economy will be driven by the non-Western consumer for the first time in modern history
There will be more global wealth owned by women than men
There will be more robots than workers
There will be more computers than human brains
There will be more currencies than countries
According to Mauro F. Guillen, the only way to truly understand the global transformations underwayâand their impactsâis to think laterally. That is, using peripheral vision, or approaching problems creatively and from unorthodox points of view. Rather than focusing on a single trendâclimate-change or the rise of illiberal regimes, for exampleâGuillen encourages us to consider the dynamic inter-play between a range of forces that will converge on a single tipping pointâ2030âthat will be, for better or worse, the point of no return.
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez is a groundbreaking book that brings to light the gender bias that permeates our society. The book reveals how the world is largely built for and by men, leading to a systemic disregard for women's experiences. This bias manifests itself in various aspects of life, from medical research to technology, workplaces, and even urban planning.
The author compiles an array of case studies, stories, and new research from around the globe, illustrating the 'invisible' ways in which women are consistently overlooked, and the significant consequences this has on their lives. Invisible Women uncovers the 'gender data gap,' which has led to widespread and systemic discrimination against women, affecting their health, safety, and economic well-being.
Through this compelling narrative, Perez advocates for change, urging us to view the world through a more equitable lens. This book is not just an eye-opener but a call to action for a more just society where both men and women are equally considered.
The Kiss Quotient is a heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that demonstrates one thing with certainty: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick. Stella Lane believes math is the only thing that unites the universe. She devises algorithms to predict customer purchasesâa job that has given her ample financial resources but significantly less dating experience than the average thirty-year-old.
Stella's Asperger's makes social interactions challenging, with French kissing evoking images of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her logical conclusion: she needs plenty of practiceâwith a professional. Enter Michael Phan, a Vietnamese and Swedish escort who can't afford to refuse Stella's proposition. Agreeing to assist her with her intimate lesson plan, Michael helps Stella explore everything from foreplay to more adventurous positions.
As Stella begins to enjoy his kisses and yearn for more of the sensations he elicits, their straightforward arrangement starts to make an unexpected kind of sense. And the emerging pattern will persuade Stella that love is indeed the best kind of logic.
Insightful, surprising, and with ground-breaking revelations about our society, Everybody Lies exposes the secrets embedded in our internet searches, with a foreword by bestselling author Steven Pinker. While people often lie to friends, lovers, doctors, pollstersâand to themselvesâin Internet searches, they confess their truths, revealing secrets about sexless marriages, mental health problems, and even racist views.
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, an economist and former Google data scientist, presents what might be the most important dataset ever collected. This unprecedented database of secrets offers astonishing insights into humankind. For example, anxiety does not increase after a terrorist attack, crime levels drop when a violent film is released, and racist searches are no higher in Republican areas than in Democrat ones.
Stephens-Davidowitz reveals information that can be used to change our culture and addresses the questions we're afraid to ask that might be essential to our well-beingâboth emotional and physical. Everybody Lies is insightful, funny, and always surprising, exposing the biases and secrets deeply embedded within us, at a time when things are harder to predict than ever.