The promise, application and pitfalls of big data

Digital society appears to have established a position in the zeitgeist of modern society. We can see the origins of digital society as having roots in digitizing, algorithms, data-informed decision-making processes and data-driven management. These trends are likely to continue, so big data in that sense is not likely to go away. However, big data (or dataism), is seen as something more than a description of several connected threads and is often melded into prediction and prescription. Here, big data is the answer to many problems, and the claim and promise of the digital society is to improve firms’ competitiveness and public organizations’ provision of welfare services to the citizens as end-users. Of course, the spread of big data as a unified package owes much to consultants and the pressures on organizations. This book we contributes to these debates with research-based chapters from authors from many disciplines, and from across the globe, to provide an evidence base beyond the prescriptions of the guru and consultant tracts. The authors are experts in their fields and were not chosen because they have a specific stance on big data, but because they provide academic and critical perspectives.