Competing perspectives on the Big Data revolution: a typology of applications in public policy

ABSTRACT

While the Big Data revolution is transforming public policy, some debates and competing perspectives on the impact of the disruptive technology of Big Data analytics remain. Although trade-offs among objectives are inevitable in Big Data applications, its ultimate impact would depend on the moderating factors, which vary across contexts such as policy areas and national systems. Integrating the literature from multiple disciplines, this article identifies some of the critical moderating factors accounting for the differentials of Big Data impacts and develops a typology of its applications in public policy as a heuristic to understand and reconcile competing perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• AI
• Big Data
• data science
• data-driven public sector
• smart city
• disruptive technology
• comparative public policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).