• Chicago and the Built Environment, 26-27 April
• Globalization and Mobilities, 3-4 May
• Causality in Political Networks, 10-11 May
• Health in Cities, 10-11 May

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From rust to legacy

In the introduction to “Reinventing America’s Legacy Cities,” city planner and editor Alan Mallach proposes the concept of “legacy cities” to refer to urban areas that once represented an iconic part of American industrialization but have seen rapid decline over the past decades. Mallach argued that while those cities, with their high unemployment rates, may be a drain on public finances, they are still an important part of the American national legacy; they also offer cultural resources such as universities and research centers, sports teams, museums, and theaters. Building on these remaining assets and their importance for American culture, is, according to Mallach, key for reconceptualizing a future for these cities. Moving away from the concept of “Rust Belt” to the idea of “Legacy Cities,” Mallach argued, is a first step to improving the negative image associated with these former industrial centers.

Dynamics of decline and growth

In another chapter of the book, social scientists Edward W. Hill, Harold L. Wolman, Katherine Kowalczyk, and Travis St. Clair analyzed four decades of population rise and decline in US cities. Included in the sample were metropolitan areas with a population greater than 50,000 people in 2000. Based on census data and data on unemployment and Gross Metropolitan (Domestic) Product from Moody’s Analytics, Hill and his colleagues found that high unemployment rates are indeed strongly associated with population decline in cities. Furthermore, cities in states that had implemented right-to-work laws preventing labor unions from enforcing union membership as a precondition for employment fared better in terms of retaining their population than states which did not have similar legal provisions. Finally, older cities with lower-quality infrastructure, as well as cities with higher crime rates were more likely to lose population than newer cities with lower crime rates.

Desirable housing and green cities

Later in the book, Mallach argued for acknowledging the need to shrink cities like Detroit to achieve a balance in the supply and demand of housing. Reduction of supply can be achieved by thoughtful demolition of abandoned housing stock. The empty land created through demolition could in turn be redeveloped effectively for example by building more desirable housing units. Simultaneously, Mallach argued, municipalities must increase the demand for housing by improving the quality of life in struggling neighborhoods.  Investments in public transportation, recreational facilities, parks and schools are essential for attracting new residents to struggling neighborhoods. Yet, as another contributor to the volume, urban designer Terry Schwarz argued later in the book, housing construction may not be a solution for areas in which there is particularly low demand.  Instead, vacant land can be used to develop “productive landscapes,” including urban farms that could be used for growing healthy food for city residents, or as sites for alternative energy development. Should demand for housing grow, those sites can be used again for residential purposes.

Looking towards Europe

The United States is not unique in facing the problem of shrinking cities. Economic restructuring has generated out-migration in European cities as well. The Rust Belt of Germany around the River Ruhr faced significant changes when mining became unsustainable in the area during the 1960s. After the German reunification, Eastern German cities such as Leipzig also faced a major transition from Fordist to post-Fordist industry and lost population in the process. Geographer Joerg Ploeger points to Leipzig’s successful recovery as an inspiration for struggling American cities. In Leipzig, a concerted effort of federally-funded housing programs, investment incentives for industrial development, and a progressive approach to urban development eventually revitalized the city. Leipzig also provided an example for productively re-using abandoned industrial ruins. The city turned abandoned coal mines into a recreational landscape of lakes surrounding the city that enhance the quality of life of city dwellers who use the opportunity to escape hot inner city summer days.

Homepage image by Flickr user TMView.

Neighborhood development

Urban planner and researcher Eugenie Birch has considered the value of anchor institutions as engines for economic growth. In an effort to attract top talent, employers commission the construction of livable accommodations and other amenities close to the workplace. Those investments can revitalize disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, made significant investments in the New Kensington neighborhood that surrounds the campus. Community gardens and landscaping took the place of empty lots, and abandoned buildings were demolished or transformed into livable units. Economist Susan Wachter estimated that property values in the improved area increased by forty percent, a net increase of $16 million.  At the same time, Birch acknowledges that tensions can arise if the goals of the anchor institution do not match the desires of the community.

Institutional development

Using cases studies of hospitals and universities, social scientists Henry Webber and Mikael Karlström analyzed the costs and benefits that nonprofit institutions like universities and hospitals may experience when they choose to invest in their local communities. Benefits include creating an environment that attracts staff and customers, as well as generating goodwill from local politicians, community leaders, and potential donors. The goodwill of community leaders becomes especially valuable when the anchor institution needs local support to circumvent zoning restrictions that could prevent its expansion. Webber and Karlström also reported that Yale University experienced alumni support for community improvement initiatives such as the rebuilding of downtown New Haven. Trinity College’s endowment increased vastly after the school decided to invest in the Hartford, Connecticut, community surrounding the campus. Webber and Karlström acknowledged that it is difficult to assess precisely how returns on investments in the local community compared with those derived from other direct institutional investment. Community investment also has indirect costs. When embarking on a community investment agenda, anchor institutions often hire urban planners or other professionals with relevant experience, who are better prepared to build relationships with political and community leaders. Webber and Karlström concluded that the community investment and long term gains in goodwill and improved community relations outweighed the human capital costs of hiring specialized staff members.

Loss of Revenue

Many anchor institutions, such as universities, medical centers, and museums, are nonprofits, meaning they are exempt from paying taxes. The idea of a large nonprofit institution with thousands of employees and a significant footprint in the community being tax-exempt may not always be seen as beneficial to the community by municipal government. Instead of property taxes, many anchor institutions make much smaller voluntary payments, commonly known as “Payments In Lieu Of Taxes” (PILOTS). The New York Times reported that in times of fiscal crisis, cities across the country are trying to find ways of working with nonprofit anchor institutions to counteract the negative economic impact such institutions’ exclusion from the tax rolls might have on the cities’ bottom line. Yet the ability of cities to force their nonprofit anchor institutions to increase payments is limited. In Philadelphia, the voluntary payments by major anchor institutions has fallen significantly, from almost $700,000 in 2009 to slightly less than $400,000 in 2011. The University of Pennsylvania made no contributions at all.

While examples like Morningside Heights in Manhattan or the New Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia seemed to show the powerful impact anchor intuitions can have on their local communities, systematic research analyzing both their benefits and their revitalizing effects—as well as their burden on tax revenue—is just beginning. According to Birch, the research needs to develop more objective indicators for measuring the success or failure of community investment. Scholars must not only take into account visible improvements, but also interactions between political partners and anchor institutions that may or may not generate effective neighborhood change.

Homepage photo by Flickr user Shreyans Bhansali

Disaster Relief

Ferris showed that conventional disaster relief failed to protect the population of Port-au-Prince. Disaster relief strategies are often devised for open and largely unpopulated areas and are, as Ferris demonstrated, inadequate in urban contexts. The construction of refuge camps, for instance, is intended to ease the logistical challenges of providing emergency relief to citizens, and is useful for limiting outbreaks of violence. Yet urban populations are more mobile than rural ones, and cities usually have higher crime rates than nonurban areas, making it more challenging to stabilize the area in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Disaster responders found it impossible to implement a coherent camp structure in Port-au-Prince. Usually, refugee camps are set up centrally, in open areas, and their boundaries are clearly circumscribed by fences. Instead, after the 2010 earthquake more than 1,000 camp-like refugee sites emerged throughout the city. The camps were integrated into the surrounding environment and varied dramatically in size. In some cases, only a few families gathered beneath the remains of their former homes. In others, the sites were larger NGO-run settlements that had even established clinics to serve the displaced Haitians. This diversity made coordinating rescue efforts and distributing humanitarian aid particularly complicated.

Disaster Prevention

A 2012 UN conference about the vulnerability of cities echoed Ferris’s appeal to reconsider disaster relief and prevention in cities. The UN’s report on the conference proceedings highlighted the role of cities as economic-growth engines whose destruction can have devastating effects on the local economy. The conference also encouraged municipal leaders from many parts of the world to share their expertise in coping with rising sea levels, risks of floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The gathering was part of the UN campaign titled “Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready.” The campaign website offers toolkits for municipal government to assess risk and develop coping mechanisms. Among the preventive measures the website suggested are keeping databases that cover region-specific risk factors up-to-date, enforcing building regulations, and integrating illegal settlements and poor neighborhoods into city planning.

Elizabeth Ferris emphasized the need to adapt recovery plans to urban settings, especially in developing countries. Countries like Haiti, whose cities struggle with poor living conditions, inadequate infrastructure, and high crime rates, are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.  Rethinking disaster response is critical, according to Ferris, for limiting death and devastation in urban neighborhoods in the aftermath of future natural disasters. 

Homepage photo by Flickr user United Nations Photo

Rapid growth

In Planet of Slums, urban theorist Mike Davis reported that according to Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) estimates, by 2020 the Gulf of Guinea will be home to three hundred cities, each with a population greater than 100,000 people. Historians Francesca Locatelli and Paul Nugent attributed the growth of sub-Saharan urban areas to the migration of rural residents to cities as well as to higher birth rates in urban areas. Using data originally contained in the 2002 UN publication The World Urbanization Prospects, together with data provided by the World Bank, demographer Barney Cohen projected that fifty-three percent of the sub-Saharan African population may live in urban areas by 2030, a dramatic increase from the first decade of the twenty-first century, when only thirty-eight percent lived in cities.

Slow development

Geographer Deborah Potts questioned these urban growth rates after analyzing UN-HABITAT data on cities in Malawi. With these data, Potts found just a one percent increase in urbanization between 1998 and 2010. Potts suggested that predictions of rapid growth made by other scholars did not adequately reflect the fact that in the 1970s, after several decades of rapid growth, the region entered a period of significant economic hardship that continues to the present day. As a result, rural residents have had little incentive to relocate to larger cities for work.

Resource allocation

As Potts argued, revisiting previous population estimates and growth models is necessary for the accurate allocation of financial and material resources. Equating population growth with urbanization can have negative consequences, she cautions, since the needs created by slow urban growth through increased birth rates are different from the results of projected rapid growth through migration. Understanding the exact model of urban growth at play in the sub-Saharan region is crucial, Potts argues, for politicians and development agencies that may adapt public policy in ways that would further encourage migration to cities. 

Homepage issue photo by Timm Kress

Better neighborhoods, higher test scores

Social scientists Jens Ludwig, Helen Ladd, and Greg Duncan used data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment to investigate the impact of neighborhood environment on educational outcomes. The MTO experiment was conducted in five cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Families who volunteered were randomly assigned to different treatment groups. Whereas the experimental group received counseling and vouchers to move into low-poverty neighborhoods, the second group simply received regular Section 8 subsidies without being encouraged to move out of high-poverty areas. A third group functioned as a control group and received no subsidies at all. Using data from the Baltimore site, Ludwig, Ladd, and Duncan found that elementary school students in the experimental group who had moved to better neighborhoods scored about one-quarter of a standard deviation higher in reading and math tests than children in the control group. Robert Sampson, Patrick Sharkey, and Stephen Raudenbush found similar results when they investigated the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on the verbal ability of African American children.  Based on intelligence tests administered within the framework of the Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods project, they found that children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods on average score four points lower than children living in better-off areas—a result that is almost equal to missing a year of schooling.

Better neighborhoods, no improvement?

A more recent analysis of MTO data from all five cities generated very different results. Social scientists Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey Kling, Greg Duncan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn found that math as well as reading scores did not significantly improve for children aged between six and twenty. The children were assessed four to six years after they had moved to a low-poverty neighborhood. Sanbonmatsu and her colleagues also revisited the children in the Ludwig Baltimore sample and found that the Baltimore elementary school children did not sustain their educational gains. In the final results of the MTO experiment, published in October 2011, Sanbonmatsu and her colleagues confirmed that there are few significant improvements in test scores ten to fifteen years after children had moved to less disadvantaged neighborhoods. There was no significant difference in achievement between those children who stayed in high-poverty areas and those who had moved away. The researchers suggested that the results may be related to the segregated, low-quality schools the children continued to attend even though they had moved to low-poverty areas.

In a review of neighborhood-effects studies and a reanalysis of the MTO data, sociologist Julia Burdick-Will and her colleagues challenged this null finding. They argued that the results of MTO, the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, and other studies showed that neighborhood effects may work in nonlinear ways. The size of the effect visible may be contingent on other factors, such as exposure to violence or the relative disadvantage of the neighborhood the child lives in. Children who come from very disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience larger neighborhood effects than those living in moderately disadvantaged areas. Consequently, the size of the neighborhood effect depends on the city. In high-poverty areas of Chicago and Baltimore, the MTO data showed an improvement in test scores. In Boston, Los Angeles, and New York, where neighborhoods are comparatively less disadvantaged, the researchers did not find clear test-score improvements.

Cultural factors

Sociologist David Harding argued that neighborhood effects mainly work through cultural pathways. Children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods are exposed to a greater variety of educational choices than their peers in other areas. He suggested that living in a culturally heterogeneous neighborhood has a negative impact on educational achievement. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescence (AddHealth), he showed that inner-city children observe educational behavior ranging from dropping out of high school to graduating from college. This greater variety of educational models seems to be affecting children’s own educational aspirations, by forcing them to decide among too many competing alternatives. Analyzing the same data set in another recent article, Harding also found that high levels of neighborhood violence may have a detrimental effect on high school graduation rates. He found that living in neighborhoods with high rates of violence was associated with significantly lower chances of high school graduation, regardless of family structure, income, and language spoken in the household. 

Multigenerational effects

Sharkey and sociologist Felix Elwert have recently argued that neighborhood poverty has a cumulative effect across generations. Relying on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), they showed that children who were raised in poor neighborhoods by parents who had grown up in similarly disadvantaged communities had cognitive ability scores more than half a standard deviation below their peers. The children scored on average 9.27 points lower on the reading test and 8.36 points lower on the problem-solving test than children who were raised in non-poor neighborhoods by parents who had grown up in similarly non-poor areas. Though the authors demonstrated the presence of multigenerational effects through advanced statistical models, they explained that disentangling the precise interactions underlying the complex web of mechanisms at work over generations was impossible.

While researchers try to disentangle the impact of neighborhoods and generational effects on schooling, policy makers are beginning to consider alternatives to NCLB. In September of 2011, President Obama announced that states may now opt out of the program under certain conditions. With schools failing to meet the test score standards of NCLB, the government is rethinking its approach to helping the most disadvantaged students.

Homepage image by Flickr user rockcreek.

Sedentary behavior

Social scientists Z. Davidson, Aline Simen-Kapeu, and Paul Veugelers studied the relationship between neighborhood attributes and physical activity. Using survey data collected in Alberta, Canada, elementary schools, the authors found that parks and sidewalks not only provide opportunities for exercise but also raise the self-efficacy, defined as the confidence to exercise, of elementary school children. Being surrounded by parks, the authors argue, increases childrens’ satisfaction with their neighborhood, which, in turn, makes them feel more comfortable with exercise.

Davidson and his coauthors’ findings have been further refined by a recent study that focused specifically on the relationship between public open spaces and children’s sedentary behavior. Psychologist Jenny Veitch and her colleagues used the Children Living in Active Neighborhoods data set, which included 291 families with children between the ages of five and six living in Melbourne, Australia. Parents reported the amount of time their children spent watching TV and playing video games. In addition, researchers visited the homes of participating families and took note of the open spaces in the vicinity of the family’s residence. The researchers found that the positive effect of outdoor spaces provided for children depends on specific architectural characteristics.  Neighborhoods with parks that include a water feature were ranked as more satisfactory and were associated with children spending less time watching TV and playing video games than those without ponds or other water-based landscape elements. In contrast, walking paths were not related to lower sedentary behavior among children, even though cul-de-sacs seemed to encourage children to engage in more independent activities outside of the parental home.

Important differences

Social scientists Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Orit Stieglitz investigated the differences between parks in the Los Angeles area and those in the suburban San Fernando Valley. Using geographic information systems (GIS), surveys, and interviews, they found that Los Angeles residents have on average less green, open space available than San Fernando Valley inhabitants.  Furthermore, suburban parks were better maintained, even though children in L.A. use their parks more heavily than do children in the San Fernando Valley. Louikaitou-Sideris and Stieglitz argued that children who live in cities use their neighborhood park as a backyard. In contrast, suburban children tend to use parks mainly on weekends for picnics with their families and are less satisfied with the public equipment than inner-city children.

Risks and costs

Despite their potential benefits, maintaining parks is costly. According to the City Park Facts Report published by the Trust for Public Land, New York spent $1,329,673,995, or $158 per resident, on its parks during the fiscal year 2009. While that price tag provided space that in 2009 was visited by 35 million people, it still suggests that we ought to carefully weigh both the problems and benefits of the public parks system.  

For example, chemical engineer Julian D. Marshall and public health researchers Michael Brauer and Lawrence D. Frank warned that the dangers of vehicle emission should encourage us to think more carefully about how we promote parks. Marshall and his colleagues analyzed emission rates, ozone concentration, and walkability (community design that encourages walking, such as well-connected streets, proximal stores, or small city blocks) for 89 percent of all Vancouver postal codes. They concluded that while walkability may help residents to become more active, walking in high-density areas also increases exposure to traffic-related pollution. This problem was particularly acute in the low-income areas of Vancouver, which are amenable to traveling on foot, but which also have high vehicle emission rates. 

Still, few researchers question that green spaces increase livability in cities. Researcher Christopher Walker even argued in a recent Urban Institute report that the positive effects of parks for city dwellers may extend beyond the benefits to public health.  Walker suggested that, given their ability to encourage people to get together, parks increase neighborhood ties and generate the social capital that helps communities thrive. 

Homepage photo by Flickr user ZeroOne.

The first snow fell early this autumn in the northeastern United States. Yet the somewhat premature winter weather may be deceiving. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, human behavior has contributed to global climate change, and we are likely to face steadily rising temperatures in the future. These record-high temperatures are significantly affecting the health of at-risk populations such as the elderly.  For example, the 2011 heat wave that enveloped the midwestern and eastern regions of the United States claimed a dozen lives in the Midwest.

In their summary of epidemiological studies between 2005 and 2010, sociologist Sharon Harlan and geographer Darren Ruddell argued that the effects of higher temperatures will hit cities harder than rural areas. Their review showed that cities’ population density and towering buildings create a phenomenon known as the “urban island effect.” The densely built urban landscape retains heat more easily and creates higher baseline temperatures than those found in less populated small towns or villages. Yet researchers are still questioning how exactly climate change affects urban populations.  

Rising temperatures and heat-related mortality

In a recent study, geographers Simon Gosling and Glenn McGregor and epidemiologist Anna Páldy investigated the relationship between rising temperatures and mortality in six cities. Relying on death records for residents of Boston, Budapest, Dallas, Lisbon, London, and Sydney, they argued that there is a relationship between excess mortality—mortality that would exceed the usual average at a particular time of the year—and rising temperatures. In cooler-weather cities, where residents are accustomed to lower baseline temperatures, heat-related mortality occurs at lower temperatures than it does in cities that have warmer climates. In a follow-up study, Gosling, McGregor, and climatologist Jason Lowe attempted to project the death toll that rising temperatures may help create in the future. Such calculations, they found, are almost impossible to determine, since the models cannot account for the adaptation of the population to higher temperatures. For example, projecting that people would be able to adjust effectively to an average temperature increase of just two degrees Celsius would cut the heat-related mortality rate in half.

Uncertainty about our ability to project mortality rates accurately is offset by the reality of the heat waves that have significantly affected residents of several large cities numerous times over the last decade. Marc Poumadère, Claire Mays, Sophie Le Mer, and Russell Blong showed that the 2003 heat wave in France caused 14,947 excess deaths. Those who fell victim to the high temperatures were often isolated, economically disadvantaged, or living in small and poorly ventilated apartments.  A similar assessment was made by sociologist Eric Klinenberg, who argued that the 1995 heat wave in Chicago disproportionately affected older African Americans. Not only were many elderly African American seniors living in poorly ventilated apartments, but many were living in neighborhoods rife with violence, which prevented them from leaving their homes to seek help.

Possible solutions

While some characteristics of cities, such as their density and their tall buildings, might contribute to and magnify the effects of climate change, some researchers argue that those very attributes might be part of the solution. Economists Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn analyzed the National Household Travel Survey and found that the density of cities and their ability to support carbon dioxide emission–reducing solutions such as mass transit made urban areas particularly efficient at addressing one of the leading causes of global warming. In cities with well-developed public transit systems, such as Boston and New York, residents can drastically reduce their use of cars. Densely populated cities with extensive public transportation systems thus have far lower carbon dioxide emission rates than suburban areas. Many cities in the Northeast and on the West Coast of the United States, such as New York and San Francisco, are also on the forefront of reducing electricity use.

Encouraging people to live in cities, even despite the higher baseline temperatures, might be a solution to lowering carbon dioxide emissions. As Stephen Hammer, co-director of the Urban Climate Change Research Network, recently pointed out in a CNN interview, cities are actually using energy very efficiently—it is simply the sheer number of people living in cities that leads to comparatively high emission rates. He calls cities the “laboratory for central governments.” According to Hammer, urban areas’ innovative approaches to protecting the environment can lead the way to national implementation of policies that could promote more sustainable practices. With their ability to innovate and adapt, cities could be a model for a more environmentally friendly lifestyle that may prevent or delay further climate change and its effects. 

Homepage image by Flickr user jo3design.

Economist Ann Markusen and urban planner Anne Gadwa argued in their paper, “Creative Placemaking,” that city governments across the United States invested in cultural projects not only to beautify their cities but also to diversify the local economy.  Based on an in-depth analysis of more than a dozen projects, the authors argued that successful investments in the arts share several features, such as funding from both public and private sectors, support from the general public, and embeddedness within the larger arts community.

Markusen and Gadwa identified Cleveland, Ohio, as an exemplary case of a successful fusion of the arts and urban renewal. Over the past decade, the city’s Gordon Square has been completely remodeled to revitalize several run-down theaters. The historic Capitol Theater was renovated with a combination of private and public funds. Several established theater groups and their owners joined with local nonprofit groups to lobby for the revitalization of Gordon Square.  In a statistical analysis of employment data and money invested, Markusen and Gadwa argued that the $30 million investment created 643 new jobs and transformed a formerly neglected part of Cleveland into a destination for theater and entertainment.

Susan C. Seifert, director of the Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania, partnered with social historian Mark J. Stern to evaluate the connection between public art projects and neighborhood development. Relying on census data and data on membership in community arts organizations, they investigated community development in Philadelphia during the 1980s and 1990s. The authors found that neighborhoods in which arts organizations had a strong presence experienced economic revitalization during the 1980s.  They argued that community arts organizations are also instrumental in helping to establish social networks that span across different neighborhoods.

The evidence for a connection between urban renewal and the arts is tenuous.  Yet understanding whether arts investments can improve decaying neighborhoods and revitalize communities will be crucial as localities face ever-tightening budgets that threaten to cut funding for the arts nationwide. 

Homepage image by Flickr user Diana Beideman. 

Data.gov was launched on May 21, 2009, and within a month, the website had linked to over 100,000 data sets. Since its launch, the website’s content has quadrupled, now containing almost 390,000 data sets—a number that continues to grow daily. Seventeen government agencies—from the Department of Agriculture to NASA—are currently publishing their information on the website.

Data.gov was the beginning of an open-data movement that has proliferated around the globe. Twenty-one countries have so far at least partially opened up their data for public use. Germany offers environmental monitoring data that allows citizens to access air quality and radiation measurements. The city of Paris provides statistics about city libraries and construction permits. Yet only data.gov.uk, launched in January 2010, links to a data volume comparable to the United State’s Data.gov.  

In the United States, the open-data movement has also spread to state, county, and city levels. Twenty-nine states and eleven cities have published data resources online. In September 2011, Cook County, Illinois, launched its data portal, lookatcook.com. Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey wanted to visualize the county’s spending patterns in a way that was easy to understand for the average resident. Lookatcook.com offers simple charting tools in addition to downloadable raw data. Using this online resource, Chicagoans are now able to track of the county’s spending patterns. Complementing the data available at the county level, the website chicago.everyblock.com allows users to search for crimes recorded by the Chicago Police Department according to address or zip code.

But does having more data available to more people really mean greater democracy? And is quantitative analysis being used beyond academic circles?

Researchers are only beginning to understand the impact open data will have on the democratization of government and the exchange of information. Several emerging scholars are questioning the implications of open data. Sociologist Tim Davies analyzed the user patterns of data.gov.uk for his dissertation research. Davies attended open-data conferences, interviewed users, and conducted online surveys to find out who uses government data and for what purposes. According to Davies, users of open data in the UK were not aimlessly browsing the data but had specific questions that they were trying to answer with the help of certain data sets. Davies also found that the most common use of open data was not the actual analysis of data sets, but rather the reposting of datasets in a more user-friendly format. The Guardian, for example, developed Coins—a tool that filters the data by year and government department.

Journalists are taking advantage of this new resource to improve their reportage. In the United States, the New York Times used open government data in their award-winning toxic water project. Journalists used data from open Environmental Protection Agency records to expose violators of the Clean Water Act.  Internet journalist Alex Howard, correspondent for the O’Reilly Radar, even argued in an article on “the growing importance of data journalism” that analyzing and managing data sets will become an integral part of journalism in the immediate future.

Homepage image by Flickr user Opensourceway