The Data Stories project critically assess the underlying evidence base for planning and property activity.
Planning and property data are a key to how cities are understood and managed. They inform government policy, shape public perception, and guide billions of euros of investment relating to land use and development, public and private housing, homelessness, commercial real estate, and infrastructure. Little attention has been paid to such data beyond some technical considerations related to data access, coverage, quality and interoperability, with an absence of more critical analyses of the social and political nature of data production and use. The Data Stories project addresses this lacuna by examining in detail the nature and operation of planning and property data ecosystems, and their associated data politics and data power and their effects, for a single city – Dublin, Ireland – examining how state, business, civil society and academic actors produce, manage and use planning and property data. To undertake the research, the project team are using traditional social science methods, as well as using arts-based methods in collaboration with seven professional artists.
The aims of the project are two-fold: to produce informative stories about property and planning data; and to produce a set of data stories about property and planning. There are three primary objectives, with aligned research questions.
1. To produce insightful analysis about the production, management and circulation of planning and property data.
• how are decisions made regarding what data to generate and how, and what remains unmeasured and why?
• What are the politics and praxes shaping the data lifecycle?
• What is the constitution of data ecosystems and how do they work in practice?
2. To understand how planning and property data are fashioned into evidence and used to inform debates and decisions.
• What are the mechanisms through which data are translated into information and knowledge?
• How are data used to tell evidential stories about planning and property?
• How do data shape operational practices and policy decisions?
3. To assess the efficacy of a data stories approach using arts-based methods for conducting Critical Data Studies and for understanding planning and property.
• What are the pros and cons of using arts-based methods?
• Do such methods, when used with stakeholders, lead to critical reflection and changes in approach and practices?
