On September 23, professor, researcher, and Data & Society founder danah boyd delved into her research and its implications with historian and author Dan Bouk, in a conversation moderated by Data & Society Executive Director Janet Haven.
The United States census, conducted every ten years, is one of the world’s oldest and biggest data-making endeavors, and one of the country’s most consequential. In her urgent new book 'Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census,' professor, researcher, and Data & Society founder danah boyd explores what it took for the Census Bureau to make the 2020 census, amid a global pandemic and natural disasters, and while navigating political forces that constrained the budget, micro-managed the schedule, and attacked statisticians’ methods. Despite these challenges, civil servants saved the 2020 census, but future censuses — and other data-making efforts related to elections, health, and the economy — are precarious.
By documenting the perspectives of government workers in Data Are Made, Not Found, boyd provides a rare glimpse into what it takes to make democracy’s data and shows clearly why protecting democracy means protecting the people and institutions that produce that data.