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Data Visualization: An Untapped Potential for Political Participation and Civic Engagement

  • Conference paper
Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective (EGOVIS 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9265))

Abstract

This article elaborates on the use of data visualization to promote a more informed and engaged participation in civic and democratic life. First, it outlines the main constraints and challenges in electronic participation research and concludes that the conventional deliberative approach to political participation has been impeding civic engagement. Then, through a couple of recent examples and a brief historical overview, it examines the power of data visualization. Following this, it explores the democratization of data visualization through four interconnected themes that provide new opportunities for political participation and civic engagement research: data storytelling, infographics, data physicalization, and the quantified self. The goal is to call attention to this space and encourage a larger community of researchers to explore the possibilities that data visualization can bring.

S. Bohman—The author wishes to thank Yvonne Jansen and Doug Kanter for kindly giving permission to use images of their work in this article.

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Acknowledgments

This research has received funding from The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) under grant agreement no. 2011-3313-20412-31.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Samuel Bohman

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  1. Samuel Bohman
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Correspondence to Samuel Bohman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Andrea Kő

  2. Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques, Florence, Italy

    Enrico Francesconi

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Bohman, S. (2015). Data Visualization: An Untapped Potential for Political Participation and Civic Engagement. In: Kő, A., Francesconi, E. (eds) Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective. EGOVIS 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9265. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22389-6_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22389-6_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22388-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22389-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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