How should we do the history of Big Data?

Type Journal Article Author David Beer URL http://bds.sagepub.com/content/3/1/2053951716646135 Rights © The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 2053951716646135 Publication Big Data & Society ISSN 2053-9517 Date 2016/06/01 DOI 10.1177/2053951716646135 Accessed 2016-05-27 21:38:08 Library Catalog bds.sagepub.com Language en Abstract Taking its lead from Ian Hacking’s article ‘How should we do the history of statistics?’, this article reflects on how we might develop a sociologically informed history of Big Data. It argues that within the history of social statistics we have a relatively well developed history of the material phenomenon of Big Data. Yet this article argues that we now need to take the concept of ‘Big Data’ seriously, there is a pressing need to explore the type of work that is being done by that concept. The article suggests a programme for work that explores the emergence of the concept of Big Data so as to track the institutional, organisational, political and everyday adoption of this term. It argues that the term Big Data has the effect of making-up data and, as such, is powerful in framing our understanding of those data and the possibilities that they afford.