Creating Data Publics for Governance

As data-driven governance gains prominence, fostering spaces for public engagement with data is crucial. This project focuses on creating data publics where citizens interact with data through creative and cultural methods to explore societal impacts. Our objectives are to: 1. Identify the data and the creative and cultural methods used in government and third-sector governance systems and decision-making. 2. Examine the platforms and processes enabling effective interactions between creating data publics and government and third-sector decision-making. 3. Recommend how government and third-sector decision-makers can engage with creating data publics to enable equitable and effective governance systems. In an era of increasing datafication, many citizens remain unaware of how data are collected and used to influence decisions. While mainstream solutions emphasize open data or data literacy, these approaches alone fail to ensure meaningful public engagement. Instead, creating data publics empowers citizens to participate in data generation and deliberation through creative and cultural methods. These interventions position data as relational, highlighting its cultural, political, and economic significance. Efforts to create data publics encompass diverse methods across various contexts. While this heterogeneity strengthens the approach, it challenges understanding how these projects can best support governance and address concerns about their effectiveness. This project will compare UK and Canadian cases and engage expert practitioners working on such projects to better understand how creating data publics applies to governance. This comparison will provide a framework for international best practices in community consultations and policy interventions. The work plan and timeline consist of three phases. Phase 1 is a scoping review of UK and Canadian cases focused on data, methods, and governance. Phase 2 involves a Futures Forum gathering stakeholders from both countries to discuss interaction mechanisms. We will share results from both phases via public reports, blogs, and an evidence brief. Finally, Phase 3 will disseminate findings through multi-modal outputs targeted to specific audiences, aiming to provide actionable insights for future data public initiatives. The project team will also participate in a virtual knowledge mobilization forum to share findings with community practitioners and stakeholders. The project emphasizes governance through cultural openness rather than just open data. By investigating creating data publics, we aim to advance sustainable, inclusive governance models, transforming public engagement and decision-making through creative and cultural data practices. Outcomes will assist policy researchers and makers in Canada and the UK in fostering equitable governance through community engagement. Insights from research institutes and their local government and third-sector partners will be shared via blogs, offering frameworks, toolkits, and methodologies to enhance decision-making platforms. These contributions will support an emerging transatlantic community of practice for creating data publics. Targeted outputs will provide actionable recommendations, reshape policy conversations, and promote innovative, inclusive approaches to data governance, benefiting academia, local governments, and third sectors.