One of the biggest contemporary challenges for social sciences is the emergence of Big Data practices and infrastructures (Couldry, 2020). Critique of practices of datafication (Van Dijck, 2014) and their role in the corporate (re)construction of social life have already emerged across communications and media research.  Scholars have questioned the phenomenon of big data (Borgman, 2016, Boyd and Crawford, 2012), emphasizing the spatial nature of data manufacturing and emerging data divides (Andrejevic, 2014, Dalton et al. 2016). Some recent studies have emphasized “data justice” (Sourbati and Behrendt, 2020) as a significant issue to be addressed in data-driven government and policy making and thus implying a critical need for studies that demystify the transnational process of data manufacturing as secretive, non-transparent and intimidating (to global or national security).  Data is the newest and most coveted raw material and is often extracted by transnational companies (platforms), that are not transparent to the host or local authorities. How can we make these companies more accountable and improve fairness in data governance?  In order to answer this vital question, this project will use the empirical example of data manufacturing along Digital Silk Road (part of Chinese Belt and Road Initiative) to understand the emerging relations in data governance between transnational corporate entities, local authorities and local customers (and citizens), and to suggest ways of mitigating the emerging frictions. Specifically, following methodological suggestions of previous scholars (Lehtiniemi and Haapoja, 2020) it will look at data arrangements and policies that govern these arrangements in two specific domains: smart city infrastructure and smart port logistics.    The goal of the study is to investigate the processes of data manufacturing and data governance exemplified by the development of DSR’s digital infrastructure.  The specific objectives are: 1. To ...

The aim of this project is to develop an anthropological study of Antarctic tourism culture. According to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), annual tourist arrivals in the Antarctic have passed from 6.000 in 1993 to 34.000 in 2012 (IATTO, 2012), an annual growth rate of over 25% making tourists the largest human population temporarily inhabiting this continent. While good sociological data are available on Antarctic tourist flows, touristic images and representations of Antarctica, the organizational structure of tourism operations and the politics of tourism regulations and conservation issues, little is known about the actual practices, performances and underlying myths and values of this particular tourist culture.

The goal of the study is to explore the social and moral implications of the phenomenon of hospitality networks and use it as an entry to investigate forms of reciprocity, trust and social connectivity in contemporary society. It will analyze how computer-mediated hospitality networks such as CouchSurfing (CS) not only generate a specific ideology of host-guest relationship mediated by the Internet, but also provoke the fragmentation of spatial mobility and travel patterns among the traveling subjects.