Postgraduate Course: Ethical Data Futures (fusion online) (EFIE11028)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | *EFI Shared Core Course*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on one of Edinburgh Futures Institute's postgraduate programmes.
This course introduces the fundamentals of data ethics as the building blocks of a mature data philosophy. By examining contemporary data practices in their historical, moral and political contexts, students will identify how values in data practice shape our past, present and futures, while developing through collaborative activities six critical data skills required for responsible and ethical data practice. |
| Course description |
This course introduces the fundamentals of data ethics as the building blocks of a mature data philosophy. By examining contemporary data practices in their historical, moral and political contexts, students identify how values in data practice shape our past, present and futures, while developing through collaborative activities six critical ethical skills required for responsible and ethical data practice. These skills are anchored by theoretical and conceptual tools distributed across the course with respect to the following themes:
1) The historical and formative conditions (material/social/political) of contemporary data practices.
2) Moral theories, relations, principles and values used to co-shape, govern and contest contemporary data practices.
3) Political institutions, structures and dynamics of power and justice embedded in contemporary data practices.
4) Emerging challenges and norms of ethical data practice.
5) Data ethics as a collaborative social project of futures-building.
Students will experience a hybrid learning environment centered on critical discourse and collaboration. Each synchronous seminar will be presented as a mix of short lectures by the teaching team and facilitated discussions engaging both online and in-person students.
Students will have the option to submit 2-3 critical reading questions in advance, a selection of which will be responded to in the live classroom session.
This will be followed by presentation of a concrete data scenario or case study that embodies a real-world ethical data challenge for the shaping of just and sustainable futures. These scenarios will be explored by students over the next week, in asynchronous and multidisciplinary online learning groups on Teams.
On these four non-teaching weeks students will carry out a discussion of the case study that was introduced in the prior teaching session.
Group tasks will cultivate at least one of the 6 skills that anchor the course: ethical reflection, ethical analysis, ethical deliberation, ethical evaluation, ethical contestation and ethical decision-making.
The group discussions will serve as material for analysis and reflection in summative assessment.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
12/01/2026 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Online Activities 5,
Other Study Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
73 )
|
| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Other Study: 10
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by the following components:
1)Essay (100%)
|
| Feedback |
The online discussions will receive group-level feedback at the midpoint during the course, highlighting for students areas where their critical ethical skills are being successfully deployed and where their application could be strengthened to facilitate the collaborative task.
This feedback will be formative in strengthening students' metacognitive attention to the collaborative dimension of ethical data challenges. The goal is to move students away from the common- but limiting- idea of ethics as a private, subjective domain of personal value commitments or preferences, and toward an engagement with data ethics as a maturing social, moral and political practice through which more just and sustainable futures are co-constructed. This will also feed-forward into the final assessment, in which students must analyse the discussions as data that can inform the development of more successful collective responses to the ethical challenges facing our shared futures with data.
|
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically reflect with others upon the values and norms that have co-shaped a data practice or artefact.
- Critically analyse with others the morally salient features of a data practice, artefact, or use case, and the various moral choices, risks, benefits, opportunities and challenges it presents for the relevant stakeholders.
- Critically deliberate and evaluate with others the ethical merits of various courses of action (policies, decisions, design choices) available to relevant stakeholders in a data practice, artefact or use case.
- Critically contest, with and to others, a judgment made or course of action proposed or taken in a data-driven context, by articulating moral/ethical considerations that justify the contestation.
- Construct, with others, an ethically justifiable and responsible decision regarding a morally/politically contested data-driven practice, artefact or use case.
|
Reading List
WEEK 1: Ethics and politics of data
Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets.
Author: Crawford, Kate and Trevor Paglen Type: Website Publisher: The AI Now Institute Publication Date:
2019
An Introduction to Data Ethics
Author: Vallor, Shannon Type: Document Publisher: Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Publication Date:
2018
WEEK 3: Ethics of contemporary data practices
Voices in the Code A Story About People, Their Values, and the Algorithm They Made Author: David G. Robinson Type: E-book ISBN: 978-0-87154-777-4 Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation Publication Date: September, 2022
Economies of Virtue: The Circulation of 'Ethics' in Big Tech
Science as culture Author: Phan, Thao ; Goldenfein, Jake ; Mann, Monique ; Kuch, Declan Type: Article ISSN: 09505431 Publisher:
Routledge Place of Publication: ABINGDON Publication Date: 2022-01-02 Total Pages: 121-135 Pages:
121-135 Volume: 31 Issue: 1 DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2021.1990875
WEEK 5: Emerging challenges in ethical data practice
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?
FAccT '21: Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
Author: Bender, Emily M., Gebru, Timnit, McMillan-Major, Angelina and Schmitchell, Shmargaret. 202 Type:
Article Publication Date: March 3¿10, 2021 Pages: 610-623 DOI: 10.1145/3442188.3445922
MEAN IMAGES New Left review
Author: Steyerl, Hito Type: Article ISSN: 00286060 Publisher: New Left Rev Ltd Place of Publication:
LONDON Publication Date: 2023-03-01 Total Pages: 82-97 Pages: 82-97 Volume: 140-141 Issue: 140
WEEK 7: Politics and power dynamics in contemporary data practices
The Threat of Algocracy: Reality, Resistance and Accommodation
Philosophy & technology
Author: Danaher, John Type: Article ISSN: 22105433 Publisher: Springer Netherlands Place of Publication:
Dordrecht Publication Date: 2016 Total Pages: 245-268 Pages: 245-268 Volume: 29 Issue: 3 DOI:
10.1007/s13347-015-0211-1
Data feminism Author: D'Ignazio, Catherine and Lauren F. Klein. Additional Person Name: Klein, Lauren F., author. Type:
E-book ISBN: 0262358530 OCLC Number: (ckb)4100000010465076 Publisher: The MIT Press Place of
Publication: Cambridge, Massachusetts Publication Date: 2020 Notes: Includes bibliographical references
(pages [235]-301) and indexes.
WEEK 9: Data ethics as a collaborative social project of futures-building
Race after technology : abolitionist tools for the New Jim Code / Ruha Benjamin.
Author: Benjamin, Ruha, author. Type: E-book ISBN: 9781509526437 LCCN: 2018059981 OCLC Number: (ocolc)1078415817 Publisher: Polity Press Place of Publication: Newark Publication Date: 2019 Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 240-273) and index.
Data Science as Political Action: Grounding Data Science in a Politics of Justice
Journal of social computing
Author: Green, Ben Type: Article ISSN: 26885255 Publisher: Tsinghua University Press Publication Date:
2021-09-01 Total Pages: 249-265 Pages: 249-265 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 DOI: 10.23919/JSC.2021.0029
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This course will incorporate knowledge and understanding of the historical, moral and political contexts of data; skills of practice in applying this knowledge to concrete case studies and contemporary challenges with data; cognitive skills of critical reflection, analysis, and evaluation of data practices.
ICT skills in critically analysing data artefacts and practices, and accountability and collaborative skills of ethical deliberation, contestation and decision-making about case studies in contemporary data practice.
|
| Keywords | EFI,Edinburgh Futures Institute,Level 11,PGT,Data,Ethics,Values,ethical skills |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Cristina Richie
Tel:
Email: crichie2@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Abby Gleave
Tel: (0131 6)51 1337
Email: abby.gleave@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage