Concluding remarks
The foregoing overview gives an idea of how big data is situated in the policy field—both theoretically and practically. The article takes a broad perspective on big data trends rooted in the Public Administration and Public Policy literature to point to future directions for research and give examples from different policy domains, such as health, education, climate change and crisis management. The concepts of Digital-era Governance (DEG), Data Readiness, Evidence-based Policymaking and Policy Design all link directly to public use of new technologies and big data streams. More importantly, while each theoretical perspective emphasizes different opportunities and challenges in junction with new data developments, they converge on two main aspects: First, the fact that existing administrative and institutional structures define the way data is collected, analyzed and used due to limited institutional support and data silos. And second, the capacity within government plays a role in how data is dealt with or used at all when looking at specific policy domains. The diverse examples given under the themes of public data culture, digitization of public services, and big and open data policy instruments all come back to these two challenges in one form or another. The examples further highlight that problems occur in different dimensions of big data—not only in the use of data to tackle issues, but also in how the information that this data contains enters the policy process and ultimately affects policy decisions as well as regulatory frameworks directing data collection efforts and sharing of information.
