Dr Alasdair Rae
Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning
28th April 2016 | 12 noon | RC-204 Lecture Room in Information School, Regent Court
No need to book.
In
this talk I discuss some recent data-driven projects, covering housing
markets, commuting, internet search and neighbourhood deprivation. These
projects involve collaboration with partners or funders such as
Rightmove, Google, the Bank of England, the Department for Transport and
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. What they all have in common is that I
was seeking to find answers in data and communicate the results in
visually meaningful ways, in order to make some kind of contribution to
policy, practice or understanding. This kind of approach often helps
capture the attention of policymakers and draw attention to important
issues. In this sense, then, it takes numbers out of the domain of data
and towards information and knowledge and, it is hoped, wisdom (i.e.
'what should we do?'). But such normative questions cannot be answered
by analysing or visualising data, no matter how captivating or
illuminating it may be. At the same time, it doesn't mean that we should
stop doing it. Rather, I argue that we need to think carefully about
maps, data and other forms of information and their contribution to
knowledge. I look forward to hearing your views on the topic.
Biography:
Alasdair Rae is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning and
Director of the Sheffield Q-Step Centre. Alasdair's work focuses on
housing, neighbourhoods, spatial interaction, deprivation and
visualisation. He mainly publishes in urban and regional journals and
also regularly contributes pieces to a variety of media outlets (e.g.
The Guardian, CityMetric, The Huffington Post). Recently, he's worked
with Rightmove, Google and a range of funders (including The Bank of
England) on projects which attempt to make sense of new datasets. He has
a PhD from the University of Liverpool, an MA from The Ohio State
University and a BA(Hons) from the University of Strathclyde.
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