The Entangling of Problems, Solutions and Markets: On Building a Market for Privacy

Abstract

An increasing number of public problems have been subject to market-based interventions as solutions. However, the relationship between problems and solutions in market-based interventions is complex. On occasions solutions are reformulated as understanding of the nature of the problem are advanced. Alternatively, problems are reconfigured to fit a standard solution. Or solutions are said to generate numerous new problems. The complex entangling of problems, solutions and markets can be explored by focusing on the field of online privacy. The complexities of this field can be analysed through three STS treatments of problems and solutions. First, issueproblematisation can be used to understand the ways in which a problem is assembled and comes to form the focus for discussion as an issue can be explored. Second, a paradigm-exemplar approach can assess the extent to which a particular coupling of problem and solution becomes an exemplar for others to draw on. Third, ontological constitution provides a focal point for analysing the ways in which the very nature of entities involved in problems, solutions and markets can be considered. There is analytic utility in each of these approaches in engaging with online privacy regulation and the emerging role of start-ups in introducing new privacy products to an emerging market place. However, these STS approaches leave us with questions regarding the relationship between market solutions and publics, the co-ordination of entities in market solutions and the normative questions that arise from entangling markets, problems and solutions.

In Search of a Problem: Mapping Controversies over NHS (England) Patient Data with Digital Tools

“…Attempts to publicize the issue through leaks and reports have not resulted in a cohesive opposition or coherent alternative propositions. So how do we study what appears to be a dormant issue when many STS scholars regard issues or controversies as best studied when they are "hot" (Callon et al 2001;Venturini 2010)? In their discussion of recent government attempts to apply market logics and mechanisms to "solve problems," Neyland and Milyaeva (2016) In one of the earliest discussions in STS, Callon (1980) argued that the definition of problems in science often implies their likely solution and the collection of actors poised to solve them. These highly contingent articulations, or "problematisations" (Callon et al 1986), are a fundamental aspect of power and enrolment into networks.…”

“…One possible solution emerges from the recent revival of interest within STS in problems, (Neyland and Milyaeva 2016; forthcoming). 2 Perhaps 3 patient data is more of a problem than a public issue or controversy?…”

“…One possible solution emerges from the recent revival of interest within STS in problems, (Neyland and Milyaeva 2016; forthcoming). 2 Perhaps 3 patient data is more of a problem than a public issue or controversy? In a pragmatist reading, problems emerge from, "indeterminate situations," which, in Dewey's (1938) This paper is an outcome of a Wellcome Trust funded project exploring the implications of digital technology and big data for the payment and provision of healthcare.…”

“…Yet, in doing so, it created another problem: NHS workers were so scared of data breaches that they were reluctant to share data between trusts and, especially, outside the NHS (Department of Health 2012). This relates to Neyland and Milyaeva's (2016) (Lezaun, 2007) that translate the issue in particular ways. The report remarked that public views on data sharing had changed little since 2013.…”

Market Failures and Market Framings: Can a market be transformed from the inside?

“…One consequence of devices’ collateral effects is that they seldom show up on their own. Indeed, Neyland and Milyaeva (2016) see market innovation as a recursive problem-solution nexus, where market interventions may solve one problem but, through overflows, create problems in other parts of the market, which require further market intervention. Thus market devices act ‘invariably in relation to other devices’ (Hawkins, 2012, p. 67), and one instance of market innovation is likely accompanied by others (Hagberg, Kjellberg & Cochoy, 2017).…”