Experience really is the best teacher because this semester I have been more prepared for the intensives and understand what is expected of me. It’s also been a good time to synthesise the knowledge gained from last semester – in and outside of the classroom – and get serious about adding structure and direction to the final project.

I really liked the way the Inclusive Society intensives were structured and having access to the Miro board before, which allowed us to see what to expect and start thinking about the other three themes. Since my interest is in food retailers and consumers, my group’s theme – a universal basic income (UBI) – was very fitting. The price of food has risen sharply in South Africa, but it has always been a large portion of poor people’s income. The value of being part of an international course is that you learn how even those who are in seemingly better countries experience income insecurity, job and shelter insecurity in similar ways. It’s prompted me to expand my sources and also include information from food retailers in developed countries. The incorporation of UBI was also something I hadn’t considered, which is surprising since social grants are a significant source of income in SA.

This week in our intensives for Power, Data and Inequality in Value Chains, we were exposed to the power imbalances between different actors in the value chain. I like that  I can now talk about the relationship between food retailers and consumers in terms of “value chains” or “supply chains”. There’s a framework, and finding information and the right people to talk to/engage with is going to be easier than it has been.

Another great course this semester is Ethical Data Futures. It’s got me looking at data ethicist jobs on LinkedIn. In Insights Through Data, we had content on data ethics but this course is the application of it and I really like that. It’s important to me to have practical skills and this course offers that. Ethics are also a significant part of a research project and learning how to handle information that may be sensitive, thinking about how you may cause harm even when you are trying to help and generally being considerate of data is important.

All in all, I am looking forward to the rest of the semester. It’s going to get challenging there by week 5/6 onwards, but at least I know what to expect now.

Weeks 1 – 3 / Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data, Inequality and Society (2022-2023) by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0