Sorting Out Valuation in the Charity Shop

Abstract

Recent work within HCI and CSCW has become attentive to the politics of data and metrics in order to highlight the implications of what counts and how. In this paper, we relate these discussions to the longstanding distinctions made between value and values. We introduce literature on 'Valuation Studies' and argue for understanding the politics of data through valuation -an ongoing social practice that transforms socially embedded values into different forms of more abstract value. This theoretical work is developed through an ethnographic study of contemporary UK charity shops, as a site focused on the labour of valuation, but embedded in both local and global values. Through this study, we consider implications for the intervention and design of 'data-driven innovation', with a particular focus on distributed ledger technologies. We argue that these technologies inevitably engage in valuation, and require careful attention to the ongoing processes by which value is translated and performed by different stakeholders.

The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts

“…In this article, we have advanced examples and practices that acknowledge the range of values that the re-use and mass-digitation of cultural heritage content may offer. Looking forward clearly requires further attention to the ‘value translations’ that take place through data-driven innovation (Elsden et al., 2019), and how successfully these bridge competing economic and cultural concerns.…”

“…Undertaking such activities – or demanding GLAM institutions do – places unplanned burdens upon organisations, and necessitates a reframing of digital cultural heritage by GLAM professionals. The ‘caring framework’ (Wilson et al., 2020) might provide a useful way of understanding the cultural digital economy, where care is understood in creativity as a reciprocal relational activity, as would considering the value of GLAM institutions themselves, through the lens of valuation studies (Elsden et al., 2019; Helgesson and Muniesa, 2013).…”

“…Through understanding data-driven innovation as presenting new and ongoing valuation processes, GLAM institutions could better recognise how different regimes of value are established, maintained and bridged, in their particular social context. Likewise, in the context of charity shops, Elsden et al. (2019) suggest the need for technologies that recognise a plurality of values, and afford new ways of translating between them to support the emergence of new social and economic relations.…”

A Right Time to Give: Beyond Saving Time in Automated Conditional Donations

“…[26,82,88,98]). Researchers in the emerging field of Philanthropic Informatics [92] have also argued that increased datafication and metricization can disempower non-profit organizations [11], neglect the situated care entailed by their work [33] and, meanwhile, mediate donors', stakeholders' and beneficiaries' values [20,93]. Extending this field to consider data-driven technologies in fundraising from individual donors, a co-speculative interview study examined the potential of a 'programmable donations' service [21].…”