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Evaluating the application of NLP tools in mainstream participatory budgeting processes in Scotland
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Davies, Jonathan, Arana-Catania, Miguel, Procter, Rob, van Lier, Felix-Anselm and He, Yulan (2021) Evaluating the application of NLP tools in mainstream participatory budgeting processes in Scotland. In: ICEGOV 2021: 14th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Athens, Greece, 6-8 Oct 2021. Published in: 14th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance pp. 362-366. ISBN 9781450390118. doi:10.1145/3494193.3494242
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1145/3494193.3494242
Abstract
In recent years participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland has grown from a handful of community-led processes to a movement supported by local and national government. This is epitomized by an agreement between the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) that at least 1% of local authority budgets will be subject to PB. This ongoing research paper explores the challenges that emerge from this ‘scaling up’ or ‘mainstreaming’ across the 32 local authorities that make up Scotland. The main objective is to evaluate local authority use of the digital platform Consul, which applies Natural Language Processing (NLP) to address these challenges. This project adopts a qualitative longitudinal design with interviews, observations of PB processes, and analysis of the digital platform data. Thematic analysis is employed to capture the major issues and themes which emerge. Longitudinal analysis then explores how these evolve over time. The potential for 32 live study sites provides a unique opportunity to explore discrete political and social contexts which materialize and allow for a deeper dive into the challenges and issues that may exist, something a wider cross-sectional study would miss. Initial results show that issues and challenges which come from scaling up may be tackled using NLP technology which, in a previous controlled use case-based evaluation, has shown to improve the effectiveness of citizen participation.
Item Type: | Conference Item (Paper) | |||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Computer Science | |||||||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | |||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Budget process -- Scotland -- Citizen participation -- Data processing , Municipal budgets -- Scotland -- Citizen participation -- Data processing , Natural language processing (Computer science) | |||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | 14th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance | |||||||||
Publisher: | ACM | |||||||||
ISBN: | 9781450390118 | |||||||||
Official Date: | October 2021 | |||||||||
Dates: |
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Page Range: | pp. 362-366 | |||||||||
DOI: | 10.1145/3494193.3494242 | |||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | © ACM, 2022. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in 14th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3494193.3494242 | |||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | |||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 18 March 2022 | |||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 January 2023 | |||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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Conference Paper Type: | Paper | |||||||||
Title of Event: | ICEGOV 2021: 14th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance | |||||||||
Type of Event: | Conference | |||||||||
Location of Event: | Athens, Greece | |||||||||
Date(s) of Event: | 6-8 Oct 2021 |
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