Big Data-Driven Technology

Project dates (estimated):

September 2022 - August 2025

Name of the PhD student:

Yiping Cao

Supervisors:

Xiaobai Shen – Business School
James Stewart – School of Social and Political Science

Project aims:

The study focuses on China’s Social Credit Score (SCS), which employs individual scores to regulate and incentivise individuals’ pro-social behaviour, promotes societal and economic trustworthiness and develops egovernment capabilities. Using technology and surveillance studies within STS (Science and Technology Studies) as the framework and the processual and performative lenses, the research aims to contribute to a general understanding of the data-driven governance method developed by the state in contemporary China, how citizens interpret and engage with the system and officials’ attitudes towards the power and limits of such an evolving regulatory tool. The research also contributes conceptually to the dataveillance framework at the fore of the advancement of digital technologies by referring to the nature and effect of the SCS and its implications for Chinese society and beyond.

Disciplines and subfields engaged:

  • Science and Technology Studies

  • Science Data-driven Technology

  • Big Data Ethics

  • Surveillance Studies

  • Privacy Studies

Research Themes:

  • Ethics of Algorithms

    • Algorithmic Transparency and Explainability

    • Algorithmic Justice, Power, Freedom and Equity

    • Algorithmic Accountability and Responsibility

  • Ethics and Politics of Data

    • Dataveillance and Data Privacy

    • Ethics or Data Ownership, Governance and Stewardship

  • Emerging Technology and Human Identity

    • Emerging Tech and the Human Image

Related outputs:

  • Presented ‘Navigating Dataveillance for Social Progress’ at the 23rd China Association of Science of Science and S&T Policy (CASSSP) annual meeting in Hangzhou, 2023.

PhD ResearchCTMF AdminEthics of Algorithms, Ethics and Politics of Data, Emerging technology and human identity