Resources & publications

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This page links to recent resources and publications relating to our most recent Living With Data research. These include reports, online resources and academic journal articles.

Living With Data focus groups & interviews results

We carried out interviews and focus groups with 112 adults in the UK from November 2020 to September 2021. We produced accounts and visualisations of specific public sector data uses in welfare, health and public service media to discuss with participants. Read about what we discovered about perceptions of fairness, concerns about inequalities, the role of imagining and everyday life experience in understanding and misunderstanding data uses on this page. Here you will find the full report of our findings, a short accessible summary, and other resources.

Animation of a data use from Living With Data, November 2021

This animation showcases one of the data uses that we mapped on Living With Data, BBC Own It. Own It is a free app designed by the BBC to support, help and advise children when they use their phones to chat and explore the online world, without adult supervision. Check out the animation to understand what Own It does with users’ data, and then tell us what you think of it. It was supported by the Festival of Social Science at the University of Sheffield and produced in November 2021.

Living With Data survey results, June 2021

Living With Data: knowledge, experiences and perceptions of data practices carried out a survey in late 2020 of people’s attitudes to data uses. We used the web survey platform Qualtrics to recruit and administer the survey to 2000 adults in the UK. We asked about: awareness of data uses; general attitudes to data uses; trust in institutions’ data uses; attitudes to specific public sector data uses in the BBC, DWP and NHS; and concerns about data uses as they compare with other concerns. Produced in June 2021, the full report, a summary of our findings and original survey questions are all available from this page.

Resources for doing qualitative research which addresses inequalities in times of social distancing, September 2020

Many of us are currently facing challenges as we seek to carry out qualitative research which addresses inequalities under socially distanced conditions. Lots of people are thinking creatively about how to overcome these challenges, and we’re aware of a number of events, webinars and discussions on this topic that have taken place.

Working with colleagues from the Digital Society Network at the University of Sheffield, in the summer of 2020, we sought to gather together resources on this topic (including recordings of webinars, if available). Our aim was to include general resources about doing qualitative research in socially distant times, but we are especially interested in resources relating to inequalities research, covering, for example, researching with marginalised, minoritised or seldom heard groups and communities, or facilitating qualitative research with diverse groups (including diversity in groups).

Our resource can be found here.

If you have any further suggestions of resources to add please do get in touch on livingwithdata@sheffield.ac.uk

Living With Data literature review, May 2020

Living With Data: knowledge, experiences and perceptions of data practices carried out an extensive review of existing empirical research into public understanding and perceptions of data practices which was published on 21 May 2020. The full report, a short accessible summary, and accompanying list of references are all available from this page.