Introduction: Towards an anthropology of data

'Small' data, isolated populations, and new categories of rare diseases in Finland and Poland

Health policy and academic discourses on rare diseases and people with rare conditions frequently employ terms such as 'low prevalence' and 'unique' to characterize the smallness of the population under consideration and to justify targeted action toward these patient groups. This paper draws from recent anthropological scholarship on smallness and data, ethnographic research in Finland and Poland, as well as document and media analysis to examine how data is utilized in the context of isolated populations that are considered sites of rare diseases in these two countries. Specifically, this paper juxtaposes the notion of Finnish Disease Heritage (FDH) with that of a 'Kashubian gene' in Poland. The concept of FDH was developed by Finnish researchers in the 1970s; it encompasses almost forty rare hereditary diseases that are significantly more prevalent in Finland than elsewhere globally. On the other hand, the notion of the 'Kashubian gene' was first utilized by the media and some members of the Polish medical community around 2008. Based on 'unstable' data gathered during genetic research, the term referred to the high prevalence of a rare metabolic disorder (Long-Chain 3-Hydroxyacyl-CoA Dehydrogenase (LCHAD) deficiency) among Kashubians, an ethnic minority that resides in Northern Poland's Pomerania region. Whereas FDH facilitated the production and branding of 'a unique Finnish genetic identity' (Tupasela 2016b, 61), the notion of the 'Kashubian gene' has engendered health policy interventions targeting members of this ethnic minority and has contributed to stigmatizing practices carried out against Kashubians.

A Data-Political Spectacle: How COVID-19 Became A Source of Societal Division in Denmark

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a data-political spectacle. Data are omnipresent in prediction and surveillance, and even in resistance to governmental measures. How have citizens, whose lives were suddenly governed by pandemic data, understood and reacted to the pandemic as a data-political phenomenon? Based on a study carried out in Denmark, we show how society became divided into those viewing themselves as supporters of the governmental approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who oppose it. These groups seem to subscribe to very different truths. We argue, however, that both sides share a positivist ideal and think that data and facts ought to rule. Both sides have also come to acknowledge that data are not unambiguous, and both cast increasing doubts on political uses of data. Though the people agreeing with, and the people opposing, the government strategy are in many ways surprisingly similar with respect to epistemic norms, they differ in what they perceive as dangerous or desirable, and in who they believe are telling the "truth" about the pandemic. These different perceptions result in different types of pandemic-related activism. Resistance against restrictions is often understood as inspired by conspiracy theories and in some countries anti-restrictions activism has turned violent. In our case, however, we suggest that when looking at similarities and differences across both groups, the gap between those opposing and those agreeing with the government approach is not as unbridgeable as might be suggested by their beliefs in differing truths and the emerging societal division.

Making it happen: data practices and the power of diplomacy among Danish organ transplant coordinators

Danish transplant coordinators handle all data and logistics involved with the removal and transfer of organs from the body of an organ donor into several recipients in other Scandinavian hospitals. This entails a wide range of data work, not only in relation to sudden organ donation cases, but also to documenting transplantations, providing feedback on donation outcomes, and facilitating the data needed by surgeons or other health professionals. This article investigates the data practices of organ transplant coordinators through the lens of diplomacy. Based on participant observation and interviews among Danish transplant coordinators, I focus on the cross-disciplinary relations and negotiations characterizing organ exchanges and show how datafication in itself is not enough to ensure smooth transplantation processes. Organ transplantation depends on the diplomatic social skills of the coordinator and the personal relationships between coordinators, surgeons and ICU staff. By bringing into focus the power of diplomacy, I conceptualize these structurally invisible efforts enabling organ donation and its associated data practices. Diplomacy enables us to recognize and understand the relational efforts and aspects of datafication, and the tremendous amount of work and social skill that go into producing and exchanging data in contemporary healthcare.

The Political Economy of Attention

Attention has become an issue of intense political, economic, and moral concern over recent years: from the commodification of attention by digital platforms to the alleged loss of the attentional capacities of screen-addicted children (and their parents). While attention has rarely been an explicit focus of anthropological inquiry, it has still played an important if mostly tacit part in many anthropological debates and subfields. Focusing on anthropological scholarship on digital worlds and ritual forms, we review resources for colleagues interested in this burgeoning topic of research and identify potential avenues for an incipient anthropology of attention, which studies how attentional technologies and techniques mold human minds and bodies in more or less intentional ways.