Data politics

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Data politics encompasses the political aspects of data including topics ranging from data activism, open data and open government. The ways in which data is collected, accessed, and what we do with that data has changed in contemporary society due to a number of factors surrounding issues of politics. [1] An issue that arises from political data is often how disconnected people are from their own data, rarely gaining access to the data they produce. [2] Large platforms like Google have a "better to ask forgiveness than permission" stance on data collection to which the greater population is largely ignorant, leading to movements within data activism. [3]

Contents

Key Components of Data Activism in Politics

Data Collection and Analysis: Data activists gather and analyze data related to governmental operations, public spending, and social issues. This analysis often reveals inequities, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement [4] .


Bennett, W. L., & Segerberg, A. (2013). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Information, Communication & Society, 16(1), 39-59. Cohen, J. E. (2019). The Data Activism Toolkit: A Guide for Data-Based Advocacy. Civic Engagement Research Group. Healy, S. (2016). Data Activism and the Politics of Data. Journal of Political Communication, 33(3), 409-430. Kirk, A. (2016). Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design. Sage Publications.

OpenSecrets. (2024). About Us. Retrieved from OpenSecrets.org Roberts, H. (2017). The Ethics of Data Activism: Challenges and Opportunities. Internet Policy Review, 6(2). Data.gov. (2024). About Data.gov. Retrieved from Data.gov

Data Visualization: By presenting data in accessible and visually engaging formats, activists can effectively communicate complex information to a broader audience. Visualization tools enhance public understanding and facilitate informed discussions about policy issues [5] .

Public Engagement: Data activism encourages citizen participation in political processes by providing tools and resources for individuals to engage with data. This engagement fosters a culture of accountability and empowers citizens to advocate for their rights and interests. [6] .

Policy Advocacy: Data activists often use their findings to advocate for policy changes, pushing for reforms that address identified issues. This advocacy can take the form of campaigns, reports, and collaborations with policymakers [7] .

Examples of Data Activism Several organizations and initiatives exemplify the principles of data activism in politics:

OpenSecrets.org: This platform tracks money in U.S. politics, providing insights into campaign financing and lobbying efforts. It empowers voters by promoting transparency in political funding. OpenSecrets, 2024

Data.gov: As a central repository for U.S. government data, Data.gov promotes data democratization by making government data accessible to the public. This initiative supports accountability and encourages citizen engagement in governance. Data.gov

Democratis Project: This organization focuses on enhancing democratic engagement through data-driven initiatives. By providing resources and tools for citizens, the Democratis Project promotes transparency and accountability in political processes. DemocratisProject.com

History

Data collection has had a long history, but the way humans are involved in its collection has grown exponentially in the years since the dot-com boom of the 1990s and the market crash in 2008. [8] The primary goal of platforms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon is data collection through the applications and services they provide to consumers, such as wearable technology like FitBit and Apple Watch, as well as home devices like Google Nest and Amazon Alexa. The purpose of these devices becomes more clear when consumers understand the immense amounts of data that are being exhausted and sold to advertisers and data brokers [9] Some scholars note the resemblance of platforms to sovereign states with their power and populations, [10] as well as their surveillance capabilities. More recently, data collection has been seen as a trade off, privacy is disregarded and in return, consumers gain access to convenient applications and devices to stay connected. [11]

Open government data

The principles behind open government data are data that are free to use without restrictions, available for reuse, unlicensed and non-discriminatory [12] Other academics feel open government data should be focused on servicing citizens needs, rather than just providing them with raw data. This process would require training individuals to analyze data while also including them in the management and planning of data. [13] Having access to government schedules does little for public engagement, but creating plans surrounding public issues, such as health and wellness, and making that data available may have positive impact on citizens lives. This type of practice has been called open innovation, which focuses on the collaborative aspects of open government. [14] Speaking to the idea of open innovation, it has been said that although there should be no restriction on data availability, the focus on data for public policy and commercial use should be most important such as economic and transportation data. [15]

Open data initiatives

In 2011 the Open Government Partnership was created requiring governments globally to adhere to standards relating to open government, including transparency, anti-corruption and promote technological innovation, and has been adopted by 72 countries, with more considered as eligible partners. [16] Other efforts include the Global Open Data Index (GODI), a crowdsourced index that scores and evaluates the openness of government data from a civic perspective. GODI tries to answer the question of how government's publish data and thus far does not assess the quality of data published. [17]

Data activism

The mass scale of data collection has created an asymmetrical power dynamic between state and citizens, some scholars say. [18] Data politics is similar but different from data activism, focusing on civic data and making the government process of outputting data better. There are multiple levels to data politics although two standout at the grassroots level, the protest of mass data collection and engagement with data. [19]

On a wider scale, the two approaches to data activism and data politics are called reactive, where large scale data collection threatens the freedoms and privacy of a society, and proactive, where open data and open government can illicit greater societal change, proactive activists are advocates of both open data and government and question the reality we live in. [20]

Data Politics shares traits of each approach in that the core values of data politics are open government data, but data politics also concerns data collection by governments, private corporations, and platforms. An example of proactive data politics was the protest of the elimination of the long form census. In Canada there are efforts like datalibre.ca, who advocate for the restoration of the long form census by creating a database of Canadian institutions that support and are against the cancellation of the census. This blog is proactive in its belief that publicly funded data should be open and free of charge to be used for positive social change [21]

CryptoParties are an example of reactive data politics, which are global events where people share knowledge about how to browse the Internet securely. This is considered re-active because the people involved are working towards data justice. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes, including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research. Lobbying is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on a specific issue or specific piece of legislation. Research has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States and Canada are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-democracy</span> Use of information and communication technology in political and governance processes

E-democracy, also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is credited to digital activist Steven Clift. By using 21st-century ICT, e-democracy seeks to enhance democracy, including aspects like civic technology and E-government. Proponents argue that by promoting transparency in decision-making processes, e-democracy can empower all citizens to observe and understand the proceedings. Also, if they possess overlooked data, perspectives, or opinions, they can contribute meaningfully. This contribution extends beyond mere informal disconnected debate; it facilitates citizen engagement in the proposal, development, and actual creation of a country's laws. In this way, e-democracy has the potential to incorporate crowdsourced analysis more directly into the policy-making process.

Open-source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open-source and open-content movements to democratic principles to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is democratically opened to the general citizenry, employing their collective wisdom to benefit the decision-making process and improve democracy.

Post-capitalism is in part a hypothetical state in which the economic systems of the world can no longer be described as forms of capitalism. Various individuals and political ideologies have speculated on what would define such a world. According to classical Marxist and social evolutionary theories, post-capitalist societies may come about as a result of spontaneous evolution as capitalism becomes obsolete. Others propose models to intentionally replace capitalism, most notably socialism, communism, anarchism, nationalism and degrowth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic engagement</span> Individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern

Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.

Electronic participation (e-participation) refers to the use of ICT in facilitating citizen participation in government-related processes, encompassing areas such as administration, service delivery, decision-making, and policy-making. As such, e-participation shares close ties with e-government and e-governance participation. The term's emergence aligns with the digitization of citizen interests and interactions with political service providers, primarily due to the proliferation of e-government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open data</span> Openly accessible data

Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shareable by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.

Open government is the governing doctrine which maintains that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and other considerations which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy. The origins of open-government arguments can be dated to the time of the European Age of Enlightenment, when philosophers debated the proper construction of a then nascent democratic society. It is also increasingly being associated with the concept of democratic reform. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 for example advocates for public access to information as a criterion for ensuring accountable and inclusive institutions.

Environment policies of the Government of India include legislations related to environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic intelligence</span> Intelligence devoted to public issues

Civic intelligence is an "intelligence" that is devoted to addressing public or civic issues. The term has been applied to individuals and, more commonly, to collective bodies, like organizations, institutions, or societies. Civic intelligence can be used in politics by groups of people who are trying to achieve a common goal. Social movements and political engagement in history might have been partly involved with collective thinking and civic intelligence. Education, in its multiple forms, has helped some countries to increase political awareness and engagement by amplifying the civic intelligence of collaborative groups. Increasingly, artificial intelligence and social media, modern innovations of society, are being used by many political entities and societies to tackle problems in politics, the economy, and society at large.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participatory Politics Foundation</span> United States non-profit organization

The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) is a United States non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve U.S. democracy. It works to increase public participation by, among other means, modernizing the political system through technological advancements that help connect lawmakers and citizens. The non-profit opened in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital citizen</span> Person using IT to engage in society, politics, and government

The term digital citizen is used with different meanings. According to the definition provided by Karen Mossberger, one of the authors of Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, digital citizens are "those who use the internet regularly and effectively." In this sense, a digital citizen is a person using information technology (IT) in order to engage in society, politics, and government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Government Partnership</span>

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multilateral initiative aimed at securing commitments from national and sub-national governments to promote open government, combat corruption, and improve governance. The OGP is managed by a steering committee that includes representatives from both governments and civil society organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activism</span> Efforts to make change in society toward a perceived greater good

Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in a community, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Alemanno</span> Italian academic and lawyer

Alberto Alemanno is an academic, author, public interest lawyer, and civic entrepreneur. He is Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris since 2009, permanent Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, School of Public Policy, and at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for Development of Freedom of Information</span> Non-governmental organization in Georgia

The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) - is a Georgian non-governmental organization which tends to support the development of an informed and empowered society for democratic governance. IDFI promotes human rights and good governance by raising civic awareness through sound informational reports, research and recommendations; Advocates for initiating & implementing reforms of policies, laws and practices to enhance democratic governance.

Data activism is a social practice that uses technology and data. It emerged from existing activism sub-cultures such as hacker an open-source movements. Data activism is a specific type of activism which is enabled and constrained by the data infrastructure. It can use the production and collection of digital, volunteered, open data to challenge existing power relations. It is a form of media activism; however, this is not to be confused with slacktivism. It uses digital technology and data politically and proactively to foster social change. Forms of data activism can include digital humanitarianism and engaging in hackathons. Data activism is a social practice that is becoming more well known with the expansion of technology, open-sourced software and the ability to communicate beyond an individual's immediate community. The culture of data activism emerged from previous forms of media activism, such as hacker movements. A defining characteristic of data activism is that ordinary citizens can participate, in comparison to previous forms of media activism where elite skill sets were required to participate. By increasingly involving average users, they are a signal of a change in perspective and attitude towards massive data collection emerging within the civil society realm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Data Buffalo</span>

Open Data Buffalo is the open data program developed under the administration of Mayor Byron W. Brown in Buffalo, New York. The initiative is a commitment to proactively release high-quality, updated "publishable City data" through a centralized portal in machine-readable formats, fully accessible and freely available in the public domain. Open Data Buffalo is an official City program designed to foster transparency, innovation, accountability, and efficiency.

Platform capitalism is an economic and business model in which digital platforms play a central role in facilitating interactions, transactions, and services between different user groups, typically consumers and producers. This model of capitalism has emerged and expanded with the rise of the Internet and digital technologies, transforming various sectors of the economy from retail and transportation to media and labor markets. Four main facets of platform capitalism are: crowdsourcing, sharing economy, gig economy and platform economy. Key characteristics of platform capitalism include:

References

  1. ↑ Leonelli, Sabrina (5 October 2015). "The Politics of Data:The rising prominence of a data-centric approach to scientific research". The London School of Economics and Political Science.
  2. ↑ Crawford, Kate (2014). "Critiquing Big Data: Politics, Ethics, Epistemology". International Journal of Communication. 8: 1663–1672.
  3. ↑ Zuboff, Shoshana (2015). "Big Other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization". Journal of Information Technology. 30: 75–89. doi: 10.1057/jit.2015.5 . S2CID   15329793. SSRN   2594754.
  4. ↑ Mayer-Schönberger, V; Cukier, K (2013). Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  5. ↑ Kirk, A (2016). Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design.
  6. ↑ Cohen, JE (2019). The Data Activism Toolkit: A Guide for Data-Based Advocacy. Civic Engagement Research Group.
  7. ↑ Bennett, WL (2013). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Information, Communication & Society.
  8. ↑ Srnicek, Nick (2017). Platform Capitalism. Polity.
  9. ↑ Srnicek, Nick (2017). Platform Capitalism. Polity. p. 99.
  10. ↑ Chander, Anupam (May 16, 2012). "Facebookistan". North Carolina Law Review. 90 (295). Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  11. ↑ Zuboff, Shoshana (2015). "Big Other: Surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization". Journal of Information Technology. 30: 75–89. doi: 10.1057/jit.2015.5 . S2CID   15329793. SSRN   2594754.
  12. ↑ Kitchin, Rob (2014). The data revolution. Sage.
  13. ↑ Gurstein, M (2013-02-03). "Should "open government data" be a product or service (and why does it matter?)". Gurstein's community informatics. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  14. ↑ Simone Noveck, Beth (2011-04-07). "What's in a Name? Open Gov and Good Gov". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  15. ↑ Kitchin, Rob (2014). The Data Revolution. Sage. p. 52.
  16. ↑ "About OGP". Open Government Partnership. Archived from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  17. ↑ "Methodology". Global Open Data Index. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  18. ↑ Milan, Stefania (2016). "The alternative epistemologies of data activism". Digital Culture & Society. 2 (2): 2. doi:10.14361/dcs-2016-0205. S2CID   152166960. SSRN   2850470.
  19. ↑ Milan, Stefania (2016). "The alternative epistemologies of data activism". Digital Culture & Society. 2 (2): 2, 3. doi:10.14361/dcs-2016-0205. S2CID   152166960. SSRN   2850470.
  20. ↑ Milan, Stefania (2016). "The alternative epistemologies of data activism". Digital Culture & Society. 2 (2): 6, 7. doi:10.14361/dcs-2016-0205. S2CID   152166960. SSRN   2850470.
  21. ↑ Lauriault, Tracey. "datalibre.ca". Data Libre. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  22. ↑ Kannengießer, Sigrid (December 2020). "Reflecting and acting on datafication – CryptoParties as an example of re-active data activism". Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 26 (5–6): 1060–1073. doi: 10.1177/1354856519893357 . ISSN   1354-8565.
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