Big Data, Surveillance and Crisis Management: (Routledge Studies in Surveillance)

Big data, surveillance, crisis management. Three largely different and richly researched fields, however, the interplay amongst these three domains is rarely addressed. Through unique international case studies this book examines the links between these three fields. Considering crisis management as an 'umbrella term' that covers a number of crises and ways of managing them, this book explores the collection of ‘big data’ by governmental crisis organisations, as well as the unintended consequences of using such data. In particular, through the lens of surveillance, the contributions investigate how the use and abuse of big data can easily lead to monitoring and controlling the behaviour of people affected by crises. Readers will understand that big data in crisis management must be examined as a political process, involving questions of power and transparency. A highly topical volume, Big Data, Surveillance and Crisis Management will appeal to postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in fields including Sociology and Surveillance Studies, Disaster and Crisis Management, Media Studies, Governmentality, Organisation Theory and Information Society Studies.

Table of Contents:
Big Data, Surveillance and Crisis Management, by Kees Boersma and Chiara Fonio Part I Social media and crisis management The use of social media for crisis management: a privacy by design approach, by Muhammad Imran, Patrick Meier and Kees Boersma Mining social media for effective crisis response: machine learning and disaster response, by Rachel Finn, Hayley Watson and Kush Wadhwa Between the promise and reality of using social media in crisis management: lies, rumours and vigilantism, by Gemma Galdon Clavell Part II Big Data and health surveillance Biosecuring public health: the example of ESSENCE, by Henning Füller Triggering action: participatory surveillance and event detection in public health emergency management, by Martin French and Baki Cakici Part III Case studies on disasters, crisis and big data Resilience, surveillance and big data in crisis management: case studies from Europe, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, by Charles Leleux and C. William R. Webster Monitoring a big data cyclon: the Sardinian case, by Allesandro Burato Intersecting intelligence: exploring big data disruptions, by Xaroula Kerasidou, Katrina Petersen and Monika Büscher ‘Value-Veillance’: Opening the black box of surveillance in emergency management, by Karolin Eva Kappler and Uwe Vormbusch Times of crises and the development of the Police National Automatic Number Plate Recognition System in the UK, by Clive Norris and Xavier D L'Hoiry

About the Author :
Kees Boersma is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the VU University, Amsterdam Chiara Fonio is currently working at the Joint Research Centre with a contract as CA (Contractual Agent)

Review :
"Big Data, Surveillance, and Crisis Management" represents an urgently needed and profoundly relevant contribution to the emerging body of scholarship about the role data and information technologies now play in how crises now unfold and how we respond to them. The voices in this volume are at the front lines of both practice and research in the multiple, interconnected fields that comprise the area of crisis informatics. We would do well to carefully and closely listen to what they are saying about how digital data is changing an already volatile world. Dr. Nathaniel Raymond, Director Signal Program on Human Security and Technology, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) of the Harvard T.I. Chan School of Public Health. Kees Boersma and Chiara Fonio undertake a major challenge in their edited book, "Big Data, Surveillance, and Crisis Management", in addressing both the positive and negative aspects of integrating the increasing amounts of digital data available from diverse sources into crisis management. On the positive side, advanced technologies provide access to many more sources of information about an emerging event in near-real time. On the negative side, this same access may compromise rights of privacy and lead to hasty judgments from unverified sources. The authors address this challenge of credibility by examining both the design and use of algorithms to mine the range of data sources and the uses of these methods of analysis in actual crisis situations. This problem warrants serious consideration, and the editors and their co-authors in this thoughtful book present a timely assessment. Louise K. Comfort, Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director, Center for Disaster Management, University of Pittsburgh This volume brings together two central concerns of our time — big data and crisis management — to provide us with crucial ways of thinking about our changing information environment. It p