Data practices often rely on assumptions of objectivity and technologies that obscure power structures. Those assumptions are critically challenged by feminist frameworks. This poster asks how feminist data practices can inform decisions about digitization and platform choice in ethnographic research.

The project is based on a data sprint conducted in a graduate seminar, in which ethnographic data were collected on the planned construction of hyperscalers in the former coal mining city of Grevenbroich, Germany. The collaboratively produced issue map raised the question of how the data could be sustainably preserved and further analyzed without reproducing objectifying or extractive data logics.

Drawing on feminist data approaches, care-based perspectives, and a critical engagement with FAIR and CARE principles, the poster proposes a “care check” for digital platforms used in ethnographic research. It highlights two platforms in particular: nodegoat, a web-based research environment, and the Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography (PECE), an open-source project for collaborative analysis and publication.

The poster argues that platform choice must be treated as an epistemic and political decision and develops criteria that can be applied more broadly to digital research infrastructures in order to foster fair and care-oriented data practices.