Making time/breaking time: critical literacy and politics of time in data visualisation

PurposeRepresentations of time are commonly used to construct narratives in visualisations of data. However, since time is a value-laden concept, and no representation can provide a full, objective account of “temporal reality”, they are also biased and political: reproducing and reinforcing certain views and values at the expense of alternative ones. This conceptual paper aims to explore expressions of temporal bias and politics in data visualisation, along with possibly mitigating user approaches and design strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a theoretical framework rooted in a sociotechnical view of representations as biased and political, combined with perspectives from critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design. The framework provides a basis for discussion of various types and effects of temporal bias in visualisation. Empirical examples from previous research and public resources illustrate the arguments.FindingsFour types of political effects of temporal bias in visualisations are presented, expressed as limitation of view, disregard of variation, oppression of social groups and misrepresentation of topic and suggest that appropriate critical and radical literacy approaches require users and designers to critique, contextualise, counter and cross beyond expressions of the same. Supporting critical design strategies involve the inclusion of multiple datasets and representations; broad access to flexible tools; and inclusive participation of marginalised groups.Originality/valueThe paper draws attention to a vital, yet little researched problem of temporal representation in visualisations of data. It offers a pioneering bridging of critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design and emphasises mutual rather than contradictory interests of the empirical sciences and humanities.

Evaluating Temporal Bias in Time Series Event Detection Methods

The detection of events in time series is an important task in several areas of knowledge where operations monitoring is essential. Experts often have to deal with choosing the most appropriate event detection method for a time series, which can be a complex task. There is a demand for benchmarking different methods in order to guide this choice. For this, standard classification accuracy metrics are usually adopted. However, they are insufficient for a qualitative analysis of the tendency of a method to precede or delay event detections. Such analysis is interesting for applications in which tolerance for "close" detections is important rather than focusing only on accurate ones. In this context, this paper proposes a more comprehensive event detection benchmark process, including an analysis of temporal bias of detection methods. For that, metrics based on the time distance between event detections and identified events (detection delay) are adopted. Computational experiments were conducted using real-world and synthetic datasets from Yahoo Labs and resources from the Harbinger framework for event detection. Adopting the proposed detection delay-based metrics helped obtain a complete overview of the performance and general behavior of detection methods.

The Possibility of Temporal Bias

This chapter discusses whether prudential rationality ought to permit of temporal biases: biases toward goods in the near future in comparison to the far future, and goods in the future in comparison to the past. I argue that there are strong rationales for such biases and that extant arguments offered by Meghan Sullivan, David Brink, Meghan Sullivan and Preston Greene, and Tom Dougherty against such biases fail.

Temporal bias in case-control design: preventing reliable predictions of the future

One of the primary tools that researchers use to predict risk is the case-control study. We identify a flaw, temporal bias, that is specific to and uniquely associated with these studies that occurs when the study period is not representative of the data that clinicians have during the diagnostic process. Temporal bias acts to undermine the validity of predictions by over-emphasizing features close to the outcome of interest. We examine the impact of temporal bias across the medical literature, and highlight examples of exaggerated effect sizes, false-negative predictions, and replication failure. Given the ubiquity and practical advantages of case-control studies, we discuss strategies for estimating the influence of and preventing temporal bias where it exists.

The Normative Space of Resilience

This paper intends to provide a way for reflecting on the normative space of resilience with the goal of creating a fruitful cross-disciplinary dialogue on well-being and health. I will point to the epistemological and temporal bias of resilience as two necessary problems that need to be tackled when considering resilience as a dynamic life process. I believe that this is timely research given the several attempts currently being pursued to shape the notion of health and well-being as it pertains to resilience (Rockström et al., 2009).