The majority of Finns already participate in wastewater surveillance. Despite this, we know very little about wastewater surveillance as a form of data collection, and its social acceptability has hardly been discussed. This study examines wastewater surveillance as an example of datafication - that is, how data are generated from various human activities. The study asks what kind of data can be generated from wastewater and what it is useful for. The project examines the various connections of wastewater surveillance for polio, corona, drug use and antibiotic microbe resistance. The research opens up questions about the use of data in society by examining the topic with the help of sociological discussions on surveillance, waste and datafication. Examining wastewater brings new perspectives to discussions about health data, because wastewater data does not produce information on an individual level, but tell about microbes, human groups and populations, for example.

2024

2028