Workshop on Data-Driven Government at EPPC 2017 in Prague

In April 2017, I held a workshop on “Visions of Data-Driven Government” at the European Public Policy Conference (EPPC) in Prague.

The EPPC is organized by students of the Hertie School of Governance and held in a different European city every year. This year’s conference topic was “Democracy in a Digital Age” and thus matched my reseach interests well.

My workshop was an interactive version of my conference paper “Foreshadowing Data-driven Government: Citizen-Government Interaction in Visions of the Data-powered State”, with participants analysing selected consultancy reports on data-driven government in small groups. As I put it in the workshop description:

“The workshop will focus on the public discussion of this topic oscillates between techno-utopian euphoria about automated, lean government or e-participation polis and Orwellian surveillance dystopias. However, what is a more realistic view of what data-driven government can look like? To answer this question, the workshop participants delve into a number of government whitepapers and consultancy reports on „data-driven government“. Discussing these documents, they identify the key possibilities of data technologies in government. Further, they cluster the different visions of data-driven government and place them in a framework of state paradigms, which highlights the different possible directions in which data technologies can drive government.

At the end of the workshop, the participants should have a concrete idea of what data-driven government could look like, what potential uses data technologies can have in government, and be able to discuss with nuance the different reform trajectories of data technologies in government.”

My workshop proved popular with the participants who worked enthusiastically in the group sessions and were full of questions and critical insights.

For details on the workshop contents and dramaturgy, check the presentation:

Workshop “Visions of Data-Driven Government” (Presentation) at the European Public Policy Conference at Charles University Prague, 22 April 2017