The exclusionary effects of data
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 10:33 am
Data collection, analysis and presentation practices do not arrive with researchers as some sort of apolitical or ahistorical artefact. They are crafted, tweaked and changed to serve the particular japan rcs data interests of individuals, organisations or ways of thinking. These practices also do more than simply offer an accurate representation of the world in which we live. This means that for LGBTQ people, and other minoritised groups, data practices have the potential to cause harm.
When applied to the topic of identity, data practices can operate as a tool to bring some lives into the foreground and cast some lives further into the shadows. practices can be particularly evident in large-scale data collection activities, such as the design of questions for national censuses.
For the first time, the 2021 and 2022 UK censuses will collect data about individuals’ sexual orientation and trans/gender identity. Although ‘being counted’ is a positive development for many under the LGBTQ umbrella, all three UK censuses will continue to ask a compulsory ‘What is your sex?’ question with binary response options. For non-binary respondents, who neither identify exclusively as ‘Male’ or ‘Female’, they find themselves forced to select one of the two options presented.
When applied to the topic of identity, data practices can operate as a tool to bring some lives into the foreground and cast some lives further into the shadows. practices can be particularly evident in large-scale data collection activities, such as the design of questions for national censuses.
For the first time, the 2021 and 2022 UK censuses will collect data about individuals’ sexual orientation and trans/gender identity. Although ‘being counted’ is a positive development for many under the LGBTQ umbrella, all three UK censuses will continue to ask a compulsory ‘What is your sex?’ question with binary response options. For non-binary respondents, who neither identify exclusively as ‘Male’ or ‘Female’, they find themselves forced to select one of the two options presented.