Appealing to the Authority of Data: Social Complexity, Fragmented Decisionmaking, and the Politics of Smart Cities

城市决策者如何利用信息？他们如何才能有效地利用信息？定义有用信息的问题的横切定义是什么？城市中通过多条决策路径进行的支离破碎的决策如何影响信息的使用？这个项目将研究地方政府内部的组织，以分析城市如何定义问题和使用数据的差异，分解政策决策。联合情报机构将研究行政能力不同的司法管辖区，将每个城市的关键线人定义为重要的政策问题作为案例。城市正处于一个信息日益丰富的环境中，增加对数据分析的投资将迫使城市官员使用信息。我们对数据分析在大城市以外是如何运作的知之甚少。在智力上，该项目将有助于将问题的形成、决策中的优先事项和信息的使用理论化。该项目的更广泛影响将包括帮助城市制定一个程序，以制定关于对它们最有用的信息的问题，并在不同司法管辖区传播调查结果。该项目将召开会议，帮助地方政府改善信息流动，提高措施的适当性。最后，该项目将对研究生进行多种方法的培训。现有课程中的许多学生都是非传统学生，他们是种族主义少数群体的成员，有助于扩大对社会科学的参与。依靠机构人种学、主要线人访谈和文件分析，该项目将追溯对数据用处的理解，特别是将数据转化为行动的情况。该框架是以社区为基础的研究，举报人还从其他参与者和司法管辖区获得关于程序和理解的反馈。因此，随着该项目将不同的组织聚集在一起开发和使用数据，它还将召集参与者分享不同的理解，并协作确定问题和可能的解决方案，并与社区成员讨论问题定义、数据分析和潜在的解决方案。这种方法将意味着，随着项目的进展，城市官员以及作为设计师、用户和选民的城市公民和居民将从这一过程中受益。该项目将推出一个信息流和决策流的软系统模型。最后，联合绩效评估机构将利用之前阶段收集的信息来开发一个基于代理的模型来帮助决策者。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

How do decision makers in cities use information? How can they use information effectively? What are cross cutting definitions of problems that define the information that is useful? How does the fragmented decision-making via multiple policymaking paths in cities shape how information is used? This project will study organizations within local governments to analyze variation in how cities define problems and use data, disaggregating policy decision-making. Co-PIs will study jurisdictions that vary in administrative capacity, using as a case a policy issue that key informants in each city define as significant. Cities are in an increasingly information rich environment, and increasing investments in data analytics will press city officials to use information. We know little about how the practice of data analytics works outside of large cities. Intellectually, the project will contribute to theorizing problem formulation, priorities in decision-making and use of information. The project's broader impacts will include assisting cities in developing a process for formulating questions about the information that will be most useful for them, and disseminating findings across jurisdictions. The project will convene meetings that help local governments to improve the flow of information and to improve the appropriateness of measures. Finally, the project will train graduate students in multiple methods. Many of the students in the available programs are non-traditional students who are members of racialized minorities, contributing to broadening participation in the social sciences.Cases have been selected for variation in administrative capacity and size. Relying on institutional ethnography, key informant interviews, and analysis of documents, the project will trace understandings of the usefulness of data and specifically the translation from data to action. The framework is community-based research, where informants also get feedback on processes and understandings from other participants and jurisdictions. Therefore, as the project brings different organizations together to develop and use data, it will also convene participants to share the different understandings and to collaboratively define problems and possible solutions, and to discuss problem definitions, data analytics, and potential solutions with community members. That approach will mean that city officials, and cities' citizens and denizens, as designers, users and constituents will benefit from the process as the project progresses. The project will surface a soft systems model of information and decision-making flows. Finally, the co-PIs will use the information gathered in previous phases to develop an agent-based model to assist decision makers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.