Cearns, Jennifer;
Knox, Hannah;
(2024)
Safeguarding Data. The Data Consensus and the Public Good in Children's Social Services.
The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
, 42
(1)
pp. 23-41.
10.3167/cja.2024.420103.
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Abstract
Over the past decade, data-driven systems have transformed how UK public services engage with the population. This ethnographic study, conducted in one of the United Kingdom's poorest boroughs, investigates the implementation of a machine learning data system for identifying at-risk children in need of safeguarding. It examines the concept of a ‘data consensus’ amongst council workers pursuing the ‘public good’. Within this consensus, the article explores contrasting stances on data's potential, namely that of data scientists, who use it as a tool to predict human behaviour and prevent harm, and social workers, who resist the notion that a person is predictable and therefore incapable of change. This reveals the political implications of these opaque algorithmic systems as various groups harness data in the name of public benefit.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Safeguarding Data. The Data Consensus and the Public Good in Children's Social Services |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.3167/cja.2024.420103 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/cja.2024.420103 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © The Authors 2024. Original content in this paper is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10192688 |
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