Big Data & Feminist Critique
This phrase describes the illusion that data and GIS are neutral and detached from power.
What is the “view from nowhere”?
This term describes the belief that massive datasets are always more "objective" or "true" than personal stories
What is the mythos of Big Data?
This scholar argued that GIS can be re-envisioned through feminist epistemology.
(HINT: it's one of the authors of our readings!)
Who is Mei-Po Kwan?
Gieseking argues that “big data” is treated as more important than other data, even though this belief is socially created.
What is the idea that size equals importance?
Kwan argues that GIS is not automatically biased instead, it depends on how this person uses it.
Who is the researcher?
These three characteristics are often used to define “big data.” Name two.
What are volume, velocity, and variety?
Quantitative research often uses this "binary" to suggest that if data isn't "Big," it isn't useful for large arguments.
What is the Big-Small data binary?
This key feminist concept requires researchers to reflect on how their own identity, position, and power shape the data they produce
What is reflexivity?
Gieseking challenges the idea that data must be huge to matter and instead shows that different sizes of data work together across levels.
What are overlapping or connected scales of data?
Instead of claiming total objectivity, Kwan says researchers should admit that their knowledge is shaped by their own position and experience.
What is acknowledging your positionality?
This Brooklyn-based archive preserves lesbian history and challenges the big/small data hierarchy.
What is the Lesbian Herstory Archives?
These types of methods (like counting plus interviewing) are used to balance out the weaknesses of only using numbers.
What are mixed methods?
This concept argues that all knowledge is shaped by perspective and positionality.
What is situated knowledge?
Gieseking uses the Lesbian Herstory Archives to show that LGBTQ history might not look “big” in numbers, but it still holds deep political and cultural meaning.
What is marginalized or overlooked data still having value?
Kwan explains that maps and visual tools are not neutral because they can leave out certain people or perspectives.
What is visualization reflecting power?
According to Gieseking, this binary gives authority to large-scale datasets while dismissing community-based knowledge.
What is the big data vs. small data binary?
This 19th-century "ism" is the idea that only scientific, measurable data counts as real knowledge.
What is positivism?
Kwan links daily movements and lived experiences to broader spatial systems using this mapping approach.
What is space-time or trajectory mapping?
The belief that big data automatically produces truth and better knowledge is something Gieseking critiques as exaggerated and ideological.
What is the cultural hype around big data?
Rather than rejecting maps, Kwan suggests we use them in a way that is aware, critical, and politically responsible.
What is using GIS with critical awareness?
This survival strategy involves deliberately not producing or sharing data to resist surveillance or erasure.
What is protective silence?
This concept describes how "Big Data" creates a false standard that marginalized groups can never meet.
What is a false norm?
Feminist GIS challenges this idea that visualization is inherently neutral or apolitical.
What is the assumption of objectivity in mapping?
Gieseking argues that the big vs. small data divide hides power differences and makes it harder for marginalized communities to be seen in research debates.
What is how scale can reproduce inequality?
Kwan argues that visualization should not be about controlling or dominating what we see, but about creating more inclusive and embodied ways of understanding space.
What is feminist visualization?