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Book Reviews

The real strength of this book comes, however, neither from the redefining of data, nor
from the clear explanations of the technical aspects of data analysis, but rather from the
philosophical threads that are woven throughout the text. While much of the book, like
many others in the genre, explores the methods and processes of data production and
codification, Kitchin is quick to remind us throughout that each and every dynamic of the
data age needs to be more fully questioned from a critical epistemology. Even Chapter 7,
with its focus on analytics and numerous concrete examples of data visualizations, calls
for urgently required philosophical research and critical reflection, a conversation that
Kitchin describes as under-developed at present (p. 127).
Sadly, the sections on privacy and security that appear in Chapter 10 add little to the
book or the field, and feel rather forced into the text. Perhaps Kitchin falls victim to the
pervasiveness of the privacy debate in the wider Big Data discussion without having sufficient space to address these concerns fully. Concessions must perhaps be given considering the breadth of these debates.
Overall, this is a well-written book that weaves together the histories and complexities of the data revolution, questioning at every turn the thinking and philosophies behind
such actions. And while the main focus of the book is on the emerging field of Big Data,
his assessment of small data and other data solutions offers solace to those who are wary
of the all-encompassing and sweeping nature of the Big Data rhetoric. This book calls to
our attention that it is not always data that imitate life but also life that imitates data, and
as data increasingly reshape how citizens and places are governed, organisations managed, economics work, and science is practiced (p. 127), this is a timely and important
reminder for both those using and researching data.
Doug Specht
University of Westminster, UK

Vincent Mosco, To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers,
2014.

Before reading Vincent Moscos excellent book To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent
World, I could have easily succumbed to the seductive mythic thinking of the hammering
campaign of Microsoft Cloud. From the pages of this weeks New Yorker, Microsoft is
selling the only cloud capable of standing up to any storm, thus building precisely the
image of the cloud that Moscos book warns us against. Microsofts cloud promises a
cutting-edge solution to the weather crisis, humanitys calamities and with time, perhaps
even to climate change: the same mythical power of the cloud that can eventually save us.
This narrative evokes early accounts of the revolutionary power of the Internet that
was supposed to bring the end of history (Fukuyama, 1992) and a new era of democracy
(Gilder, 2000; Negroponte, 1998) and freedom. The same ideological discourse is replicated in current techno-enthusiast claims about the cloud (Mayer-Schnberger and
Cukier, 2013; Nye, 1994; Shirky, 2008).
Moscos book is the first attempt to challenge this perception of the cloud. The
volume develops an account of the political, economic, social and cultural issues

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emerging from the growth of cloud computing, defined as the storage, processing, and
distribution of data, applications, and services for individuals and organizations (p. 17).
Given the current large-scale and often indiscriminate collection of personal data that are
constantly stored, shared and distributed via cloud-based services (Andrejevic, 2007;
Brevini, 2014), there is a pressing need to understand its origins, characteristics and
development, as well as the problems that it raises (Murdock, 2015).
There are at least three fundamental lessons that make this book an essential read for
scholars, students and people interested in technology, sociology, culture and communication. The first is that we should always situate the historical context in which new
information and communication technologies (ICTs) are emerging, thus rejecting cybertarian claims (Miller and Ydice, 2002) that technology is so revolutionary that it is
unnecessary to examine its origins. The second is that as scholars writing about technology and society, we should always stay ahead of the curve so as to be able to unmask the
dominant promotional (and mythical) narratives regarding ICTs. The third is the call to
embrace a research agenda that integrates political economy (Fuchs, 2015; McChesney,
2013) with cultural analysis, thus considering the idea of myth and mythmaking as an
essential dimension of inquiry.
Thus, Mosco starts his volume by arguing that the concept of the cloud has to be
traced back to the 20th century, specifically in the post-World War II years and
the Cold War interest in cybernetics. He then explores leading research of the 1950s
and 1960s when John McCarthy famously pronounced in a lecture at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) that computing may someday be organized as a public
utility (p. 18). This early thinking about the cloud, combined with an exploration of
Soviet Cybernetics programmes and Chiles government-sponsored data storage and
processing, leads the author to claim that another way of thinking about cloud computing
is possible, one which calls attention to public purposes over commercialism.
Next, the book traces the unprecedented rise of the cloud industry in the mid-2000s
and how it entered into the phase of the Cloud sublime (p. 77). It depicts the battles for
market power between a small number of global cloud giants such as Google, Amazon,
Apple and Facebook, as well as the unparalleled expansion of the government cloud.
Then, it explores how the image of the clouds boundless space is built not only through
advertising, social media and marketing efforts but also through technical studies and
reports.
Once the magical spell of the cloud is deflated, the risks of cloud computing become
apparent. E-Waste and E-pollution are among the tangible negative effects of big data
centres, but there are also major privacy, surveillance and security issues. The concerns
are due to the storage of vast quantities of personal data on off-site servers that are potentially available to any party wielding enough cash or a subpoena, and which can be
hacked and even used for torture (Brevini, 2014).
Finally, Mosco points to another dark cloud concerning labour issues, particularly
the downsizing of individual IT departments (p. 168), increasingly outsourcing as a
cost-cutting measure, and the exploitation of labour in digital sweatshops (p. 170).
In the concluding chapter, Mosco perhaps echoing his 2004 book The Digital
Sublime constructs a cultural critique of big data and the birth of digital positivism.
He then analyses literary works spanning from Aristophanes play The Clouds to David

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Book Reviews

Mitchells Cloud Atlas, to delve into common cultural metaphors and determine the
irresistible charm of the cloud.
By bridging the two worlds of cultural analysis and political economy, Mosco has
provided a new and much-needed insight into the future of cloud computing, thus putting
this debate on the public agenda.
References
Andrejevic M (2007) iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era. Lawrence, KS:
University Press of Kansas.
Brevini B (2014) State and corporate mass surveillance in the Western world Sydney Democracy
Network. The University of Sydney, September.
Fuchs C (2015) Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media. New York; London:
Routledge.
Fukuyama F (1992) The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Gilder G (2000) Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World. New York:
Simon & Schuster.
McChesney RW (2013) Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet against
Democracy. New York: The New Press.
Mayer-Schnberger V and Cukier K (2013) Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We
Live, Work, and Think. Boston, MA: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Miller T and Ydice G (2002) Cultural Policy. London; New York: Sage.
Mosco V (2004) The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press.
Murdock G (2015) Digital Domesday: saturation Surveillance and the New Serfdom. The
University of Sydney, February.
Negroponte N (1998) Beyond digital. Wired 6(12): 288.
Nye DE (1994) American Technological Sublime. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Shirky C (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New
York: Penguin Press.
Benedetta Brevini
University of Sydney, Australia

Viktor Mayer-Schnberger and Kenneth Cukier, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How
We Live, Work, and Think. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Big Data are with us, and the book Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We
Live, Work, and Think is a comprehensive explanation about what we might actually
mean by this. In the last few years, Big Data has become a key issue within the social
sciences, legal studies, economics and beyond. With this book, the authors provide an
exhaustive explanation of how this development is unfolding and why we should care
about it. By using a clear and easily accessible narrative, enriched by a wide range of
empirical examples, Cukier and Schnberger explain what Big Data imply, how they
affect our daily lives, which new methodological challenges they raise and what kinds of
opportunities they offer to social scientists.

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