Amidst the flurry of all the other events crammed into the last two weeks of August and the first week of September, Data Stories chaired a second session at the IGC with colleagues , Dr. Nic Lochlainn, from Cork City University, and Dr. Maalsen, from University of Sydney. Both Dr. Maedhbh Nic Lochlainn and Dr. Sophia Maalsen presented papers, along with Dr. Danielle Kerrigan from Simon Fraser University.
Considering how the increased use of data in urban planning, housing management, development and financialisation has led to profound shifts in how we understand, design, and manage our built environments, Critical Perspectives on Housing and Planning Data aimed to examine the most crucial and contentious aspects of data politics and power in urban planning and housing management. This research agenda is a response to how the transition towards a more data-driven approach raises a series of critical questions concerning who controls the data infrastructures, generation, analysis, and interpretation of data, and data-driven decision-making, as well as issues of spatial justice, privacy, representativeness and data ethics.
Dr. Nic Lochlainn started off the session with a presentation titled, Casing the joint: Repurposing planning and housing data for critical urban property research. With its methodological focus on how critical urban property research is conducted, in this presentation, Dr. Nic Lochlainn walked us through the idea of ‘casing the joint’, which involves undergoing a series of digital/material research methods to better understand how space is socially produced and how the production creates a data trail useful for critical research. This process of groundtruthing involves repurposing mundane and social data and determining what pieces matter, when and how.
Dr. Kerrigan followed with the presentation, The rise of own-use evictions and the limits of eviction data to understanding Canadian rental markets. This work was developed alongside Cloé St. Hilaire, University of Waterloo, and Dr. David Wachsmuth, McGill University, and inquires into the discrepancies of own-use eviction data with the starting point that in Canada own-use evictions are the most common type of eviction, but that the use of it is not even across the Canadian provinces. Deeper analysis of own-use eviction data is important, the authors argue, to provide planners and policy-makers with a better understanding of their housing landscape.
Dr. Maalsen closed off the session with the presentation, Know Your Landlord: Inverting the data collection narrative as a means to tenancy advocacy in the private rental sector. The research was produced alongside Associate Professor Dallas Rogers and Dr. Peta Wolifsonn, both at the University of Sydney. Dr. Maalsen showcased the fictional “Know Your Landlord” app to raise awareness of the power discrepancies between landlords and tenants. The presentation also highlighted methodological challenges that emerged in developing the app between the researchers, the design firm and the social media influencer.
Two additional scholars were meant to present in this session, but had unforeseen circumstances that prevented them from joining us. As chair, Dr. Carla Maria Kayanan used the extra time to allow the individuals to sit at the front of the room for a question and answer session and a more lengthy discussion on the topic.
Data Stories team would like to thank all the presenters for their insightful research and to the lively participants who joined us and asked such great, thought-provoking questions.