Open Data, Contested Science: What Climate Crisis Skeptics Reveal About the Open Data Infrastructures
Open data infrastructures promise transparency, collaboration, and democratized access to scientific knowledge. But these infrastructures also enable challenges to scientific consensus.
In this talk, I show how anthropogenic climate crisis skeptics leverage open datasets to contest scientific consensus and what their practices reveal about the infrastructures that enable this reuse. Through digital ethnography, which employs content analysis, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews, I trace how skeptics reuse climate data, revealing diverse modes of engagement. I show that skeptics’ data reuse practices are diverse: some mirror scientific verification and replication norms, while others selectively reframe or recontextualize data in ways that conflict with disciplinary expectations. Rather than treating these engagements solely as “misuse,” I analyze how they are shaped by socio-technical components of various infrastructures, including interfaces, documentation practices, and transparency norms. By situating skeptics’ data reuse within the broader climate science knowledge infrastructure, this research demonstrates how design choices shape not only who can access data, but also how data are mobilized in contested scientific debates.
I conclude by offering recommendations for data archives seeking to support constructive critique while mitigating potential harms, and reflect on the responsibilities of open science in an era of widespread science skepticism.
This lecture will also be live streamed via Zoom. You are welcome to join us either in South Hall or online.
For online participants
Online participants must have a Zoom account and be logged in. Sign up for your free account here. If this is your first time using Zoom, please allow a few extra minutes to download and install the browser plugin or mobile app.
Speaker
Morgan Wofford
Morgan Wofford is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information at the University of Michigan; she holds an MLIS from UCLA and a B.S. in wildlife, fish, and conservation biology from UC Davis.
Her research demonstrates how open data infrastructures shape the production, circulation, and trustworthiness of knowledge. Drawing on perspectives from library and information science and science and technology studies, she studies how infrastructural design choices embed values, enable or constrain participation, and influence equity and legitimacy in scientific and public knowledge systems.
Wofford employs qualitative methods, including interviews, digital ethnography, content analysis, and user-centered research. Across academic, library, and applied research settings, her work aims to inform the design of more equitable and trustworthy data infrastructures that account for the needs of diverse stakeholders.
Contact
If you have questions about this event, please contact Kimmy Fox.
Getting to South Hall
Accessibility
If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting, CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about mobility access in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Heather Rapp with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7–10 days in advance of the event.
