1: Rethinking Data Life Cycle Practices: The Value of Applying Reflexivity Methods to Current Data Practices

The data revolution has demonstrated its potential to provide evidence that can improve decision making and transform lives. While its benefits have been consequential, researchers, ethicists, and popular and social policy advocates suggest that efforts to better manage the “datasphere” are necessary (Bergé et al., 2018). This chapter offers a brief overview of some current concerns and advocates for researchers to become more conscious about the potential for bias in their data management practices and to deploy more conscientious engagement with data governance policies and tools. In this exploration of the current landscape governing the data lifecycle, we suggest that efforts to better sensitize data producers and users to the unobserved, but influential, sociological forces embedded in the questions they ask, the methods they use, and the experiences that “count,” may help avoid perpetuating misconceptions or cementing biases into accepted knowledge.