Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present
Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present
Predictive analytics is seen as a way of identifying risk of future problems in families. Integral to such automated predictive analysis is a shift in time frames that redraws the relationship between families and state, as potential for intervention on an anticipatory basis of ‘what hasn’t happened but might.’ In the process human subjects are reformulated as disembodied objects of data-driven futures. The paper explains this process and fills a serious gap in knowledge about parents’ views of this development. We draw on group and individual discussions with British parents to consider their understandings of predictive analytics and how comfortable they are with it. Parents’ concerns focused around inaccuracies in the data used for prediction, the unfair risk of false positives and false negatives, the deterministic implications of the past predicting the future, and the disturbing potential of being positioned in what was a pre-problem space. We conclude with policy implications.
Predictive analytics; Child welfare; Family-state relations; Parents; Pre-problem space
Edwards, Rosalind
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Gillies, Val
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Gorin, Sarah J.
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Vannier-Ducasse, Helene
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Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Gillies, Val
ca51ea17-1bdf-457a-b51d-ab0c39aaa26e
Gorin, Sarah J.
4aca841c-25c3-4577-9f12-450bee307487
Vannier-Ducasse, Helene
dc8d04de-9476-4fdd-92c0-f1bbb4d88939
Edwards, Rosalind, Gillies, Val, Gorin, Sarah J. and Vannier-Ducasse, Helene
(2024)
Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present.
Families, Relationships and Societies.
(In Press)
Abstract
Predictive analytics is seen as a way of identifying risk of future problems in families. Integral to such automated predictive analysis is a shift in time frames that redraws the relationship between families and state, as potential for intervention on an anticipatory basis of ‘what hasn’t happened but might.’ In the process human subjects are reformulated as disembodied objects of data-driven futures. The paper explains this process and fills a serious gap in knowledge about parents’ views of this development. We draw on group and individual discussions with British parents to consider their understandings of predictive analytics and how comfortable they are with it. Parents’ concerns focused around inaccuracies in the data used for prediction, the unfair risk of false positives and false negatives, the deterministic implications of the past predicting the future, and the disturbing potential of being positioned in what was a pre-problem space. We conclude with policy implications.
Text
2024 01 Pre-problem families FRS2 manuscript DEANON
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 22 January 2024
Keywords:
Predictive analytics; Child welfare; Family-state relations; Parents; Pre-problem space
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 486515
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486515
ISSN: 2046-7435
PURE UUID: ec66dd68-46b0-424e-abea-bacbfcc01df1
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Date deposited: 24 Jan 2024 18:17
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 05:03
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Contributors
Author:
Val Gillies
Author:
Sarah J. Gorin
Author:
Helene Vannier-Ducasse
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