Abstract
This article presents findings from local government projects to realise the benefits of big data for policy. Through participatory action research with two local statutory authorities in the South West of England, we observed the activities of identifying, integrating and analysing multiple and diverse forms of data, including large administrative datasets, to generate insights on live policy priorities and inform decision-making. We reveal the significance of both data production and policymaking contexts in explaining how big data of this kind can be called upon and enacted in policy processes.
Highlights
The claims made for big data in business contexts are well established (e.g., Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). Kitchin (2014b) discusses the powerful sets of discourses that are employed to support the application of big data to realise tangible improvements to business processes, products and profits
Attention has turned to the potential of big data for policymaking settings (e.g., United Kingdom [UK] Parliament, 2015), and the challenges involved in harnessing this potential to realise policy aims and objectives for the public good (Janssen, Konopnicki, Snowdon, & Adegboyega, 2017; Kennedy, Moss, Birchall, & Moshonas, 2015; Malomo & Sena, 2016; Schintler & Kulkarni, 2014)
This article presents a series of observations drawn from participatory action research within a set of local government data projects that ran at different times and for different durations between 2013 and 2018
Summary
The claims made for big data in business contexts are well established (e.g., Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). Kitchin (2014b) discusses the powerful sets of discourses that are employed to support the application of big data to realise tangible improvements to business processes, products and profits. Kitchin (2014b) discusses the powerful sets of discourses that are employed to support the application of big data to realise tangible improvements to business processes, products and profits. These include, but are not limited to, the ability of big data technologies to enhance logistics planning, reduce inefficiencies, understand customer preferences, target products and services to new and existing markets and combat fraud This work usefully disaggregates the applications of data, moves beyond rhetoric and opens up thinking about the spaces for data science to inform policymaking
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