The term "critical thinking" is often found in job postings.  Some would argue that this essentially means, "Thinking outside the box."  Karl Marx, who asserted that labourers represent a class of people, has been described as a critical thinker.  Regardless of how a person feels about Marx, it goes without saying that the phenomena of social classes is well-established.  Politicians for instance fight for the support of the "middle class."  How precisely does such an observation by this…

Above - During a Session at the Archives of Ontario in 2011

In this blog post, I describe my early experiences leading me to conclude, data as we know it tends to be "disembodied" - that is to say, often lacking any kind of connection to different types of bodies.  When we talk about things…

I have always found the task of converting qualitative data into something quantifiable a bit challenging.  A common route might be as follows:  assemble all of the resources containing qualitative information (e.g. questionnaires containing open-ended questions); seek out apparent themes in the responses; and quantify how frequently these themes are mentioned or raised.  This methodology leaves open the question of when something is or isn't a theme, and whether something must be a theme in…

I have so far encountered two general types of data . . .

Reductive Data

This is data that conforms to prescribed criteria.  I sometimes describe it has the metrics of criteria or measurements of conformity.  For instance, an organization might want to measure something potentially obscure like "efficiency."  It therefore becomes necessary to establish under what conditions or criteria something is efficient.  I describe…