The Data Shake: Opportunities and Obstacles for Urban Policy Making

Description

This open access book represents one of the key milestones of PoliVisu, an H2020 research and innovation project funded by the European Commission under the call “Policy-development in the age of big data: data-driven policy-making, policy-modelling and policy-implementation”. It investigates the operative and organizational implications related to the use of the growing amount of available data on policy making processes, highlighting the experimental dimension of policy making that, thanks to data, proves to be more and more exploitable towards more effective and sustainable decisions. The first section of the book introduces the key questions highlighted by the PoliVisu project, which still represent operational and strategic challenges in the exploitation of data potentials in urban policy making. The second section explores how data and data visualisations can assume different roles in the different stages of a policy cycle and profoundly transform policy making. Preface Contents Editors and Contributors About the Editors Contributors Part IThe Data Shake: Open Questions and Challenges for Policy Making 1 The Data Shake: An Opportunity for Experiment-Driven Policy Making 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Evidence-Based Policy Making: New Chances Coming from the Data Shake 1.2.1 About Evidence-Based Policy Making 1.2.2 Evidence-Based Policy Making and the Data Shake: The Chance for Learning 1.3 The Smart Revolution of Data-Driven Policy Making: The Experimental Perspective 1.3.1 About Policy Experiments and Learning Cycles 1.3.2 Policy Cycle Model Under Experimental Dimension 1.3.3 The Time Perspective in the Experimental Dimension of Policy Making 1.4 Conclusions: Beyond the Evidence-Based Model References 2 Data Ownership and Open Data: The Potential for Data-Driven Policy Making 2.1 Introduction and Context 2.1.1 From Smart City to Data City 2.1.2 Exploring the Cities’ Points of View 2.2 Challenges and Questions Related to (Open) Data Policies 2.2.1 Data Hygiene in the Organization 2.2.2 IoT and Open Data 2.2.3 Centralization vs Decentralization 2.2.4 Government and the Market 2.2.5 Open Data Checklist 2.3 Data and Procurement 2.3.1 Examples of Model Clauses 2.4 Discussion and Conclusion References 3 Towards a Public Sector Data Culture: Data as an Individual and Communal Resource in Progressing Democracy 3.1 The Balance of a Data-Driven Democracy 3.2 The Conflicting Logics of Emerging Public Sector Data Cultures 3.3 The Project Democracy Data—Lessons on Cultivating Local Data Culture from the Swedish Social Services 3.3.1 Proposals 1: Promote Holistic Data-Literacy 3.3.2 Proposals 2: Design Your Data-Driven Services as if Democracy Depended on It (Because It Does) 3.3.3 Proposals 3: Conceptualize Data as Democratic Artifact References 4 Innovation in Data Visualisation for Public Policy Making 4.1 Introduction: Data Visualisation Between Decision Support and Social Influence 4.2 Scoping the Experiences of Data Scientists 4.2.1 Multiple Data Source Management 4.2.2 Rigorous Data Integration 4.2.3 Actionable Information Delivery 4.2.4 Personalised User Experience 4.3 A Critical Eye on Technology Innovation Trends 4.4 Conclusions and Way Forward References Part IIThe PoliVisu Project 5 Policy-Related Decision Making in a Smart City Context: The PoliVisu Approach 5.1 Evidence-Based Policy Making and the Rise of ICT 5.2 ICT-Enabled Policy Making in a Smart City Context 5.3 The Unique Characteristics of the PoliVisu Approach 5.4 Barriers and Limitations to the Full Exploitation of Data Potential in Policy Making 5.5 Conclusion References 6 Turning Data into Actionable Policy Insights 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Policy Making Supported by Data 6.2.1 Policy Design 6.2.2 Policy Implementation 6.2.3 Policy Evaluation 6.3 Policy-Oriented Data Activities 6.3.1 Differentiating Roles and Competences 6.3.2 Balancing Flexibility and Usability 6.3.3 Transforming Iterations into Experimental Drivers 6.4 Conclusions References 7 Data-Related Ecosystems in Policy Making: The PoliVisu Contexts 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The PoliVisu Project as a Testbed for Digital Innovation 7.3 Actors and Roles in Data-Related Policy Making Ecosystems 7.4 Data-Related Relations 7.5 Conclusion: Dealing with Complexity in the Era of the Data Shake References 8 Making Policies with Data: The Legacy of the PoliVisu Project 8.1 Data Supported Policy Making Through the Eyes of the PoliVisu Pilots 8.1.1 Data for Dialogue 8.1.2 Between Precision and Usability 8.1.3 Proneness to Iterative Process 8.1.4 Actors Involved in Data Supported Policy Making 8.2 Bottlenecks and New Practices Detected in Policy Making 8.2.1 Bottlenecks 8.2.2 New Practices and Knowledge 8.3 Conclusions 8.3.1 Lessons Learnt from the PoliVisu Project 8.3.2 Some Recommendations References Acknowledgments