The Pros and Cons of a Data-Driven World - Studium Generale - Tilburg University
Channel: TilburgUniversity
Date: 2023-09-20

Dataism is the belief that everything can and must be translated into ‘objective’ quantifiable data. It suggests that data can guide our decisions and shape our society better than we can. But for whom and for what purpose? Watch this thought-provoking symposium and find out!

Capturing our lives in data
In today's interconnected world, it has become almost impossible to be part of society without using digital technology. The formidable force that drives all this technology is data. We gladly make use of data to monitor our heartbeat on a health app, share our location to find the next bus stop, provide information about our house to feel more secure and  follow our friends on social media to know what they’ve been up to. As the use of omnipresent data is rapidly transforming our industries and institutions, dataism is gaining popularity as well: the belief that everything can be captured in data, which (supposedly) makes for a much more transparent, predictable and analyzable world. Can everything truly be captured in pure data systems? Or are human beings too complex to be translated into algorithms? Why should we transform everything into data? Who gains from shaping the world in such a way? 

Bits of me bits of you
This belief in the power of data is also present at universities, reshaping the ways in which we work, learn, teach and do research. It has become the norm to measure the performance of teachers, employers and students by collecting and displaying data. For example, we monitor how many times scientific articles have been downloaded, shared, and cited and students are asked after every course to rate their lecturers’ teaching, partly determining  whether teachers get to keep their jobs and who are promoted. Is this data however as objective as we make it out to be?  What about women and people with a minority background receiving structurally lower assessments? What is the role of dataism then within the university? A blessing or a burden?

A Dataism Dilemma?
Our symposium featured three renowned keynote speakers who presented diverse perspectives on the benefits and challenges posed by dataism. We also hosted an interactive panel discussion. The panel included the three keynote speakers, two representatives from student parties SAM and FRONT and Academic Director Judith Künneke (MSc Accountancy). We also encouraged the critical thinking and introspection of our audience during this symposium.
Watch us navigate the moral complexities of a data-driven world, seeking to strike a balance between progress and responsibility. The symposium was moderated by Tilburg Young Academy members David Peeters and Inge van de Ven.

Keynote Speakers:
0:00 Introduction
06:18 Esther Keymolen
20:05 Reyer Gerlagh
29:40 Philip Joos
56:11 Panel discussion

This symposium is organized by Studium Generale in cooperation with Tilburg Young Academy.

*For students, this lecture may count towards the SG-Certificate. Check the SG-Certificate website for all the terms and conditions: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/campus/studium-generale/students/certificate-studium-generale