Social Work Students Collective

ALT Data and Sovereignty panel and discussion December 3rd, 2020. 2-4pm Recent attentions to the collection, use, dissemination, ownership, and impacts of demographic data have convened several historical contradictions, resurfacing the contours of the false promise of equity from quantitative data collection. COVID-19 has positioned a number of initiatives that claim to address injustice and inequities in health or elsewhere though data collection often without the needs of those mined for data at the centre of these conversations. Regularly, these data are on or about Black, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Latinx, Asian, South Asian, Caribbean, and other non-white groups, people living with mental health issues, disabilities, those who are houseless or underhoused, low-income, people living with substance use needs, and 2SLGBTQ+ populations while also collecting information on gender. These initiatives that collect and do not deliver have not gone uncontested.