People-Centred Data Governance in Cities

• Autores: Jessica Bou Nassar
• Directores de la Tesis: Sarah Goodwin (dir. tes.), Darren Sharp (codir. tes.), Misita Anwar (codir. tes.), Lyn Bartram (codir. tes.), Antonio Calleja López (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Monash University ( Australia ) en 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• Número de páginas: 251
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• Resumen

  • Information and communication technologies mediate people’s access to everyday resources and services in cities, producing vast amounts of data. In most cases, this data is de facto controlled by the owners of these services and infrastructures, with minimal input from people. Given that data collection schemes in the city are often realised through the enclosure of digital infrastructures or Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), this hegemonic approach is reinforced by conflicts among (1) the private sector, which holds power in a largely deregulated data ecosystem; (2) the public sector, which is under-resourced and has diminishing capacities to respond to democratic politics; and (3) people living, working, or studying in cities, upon whom these initiatives may be imposed. As a result, corporate logics continue to drive data production in cities, underpinned by data and profit maximisation. These imperatives raise concerns about privacy and autonomy, limit the generation of public value from data, and produce broader harms. More comprehensively, they substantively reinforce asymmetrical social relations between people and corporations. Against this backdrop, critics have highlighted the absence or dilution of people’s involvement in shaping the conditions of data production and the asymmetrical distribution of benefits. Hence, there is a growing imperative to centre data governance models around people.

    Accordingly, this thesis investigates people-centred data governance (PCDG) in cities. The investigation is carried out across four overarching gaps in the literature pertaining to the characterisation of PCDG, participation in data governance, embedding PCDG in cities, and democratic capacities required for its instantiation. It begins by unpacking and reassessing how people-centredness materialises at the level of data governance in cities. Next, it explores how people can collaboratively develop an understanding of data governance and co-design people-centred solutions. Afterwards, it examines the barriers and enablers to embedding PCDG models in cities. Finally, it investigates data governance within a broader framing of democracy’s crisis under financialised capitalism and proposes countervailing mechanisms. The work employs a systematic literature review, a co-design process grounded in systems thinking, a case study of the City of Barcelona (a forerunner in promoting people-centred data governance alternatives), and a theory-driven conceptual analysis.

    This thesis makes conceptual, methodological, practical, and cross-disciplinary contributions. Conceptually, it provides a characterisation of PCDG in cities, maps the design space for participatory mechanisms that enable meaningful engagement in data governance, theorises the dynamics shaping the embedding of PCDG in cities, and reframes the relationship between data governance and democracy. Methodologically, it introduces a systems thinking process as a scoping tool for co-design, supported by a digital tool that operationalises the process. Practically, it provides real-life lessons on the enablers and constraints of embedding PCDG in cities. Finally, the work fosters crossdisciplinary exchange by integrating critical data studies ontologies of data governance into HCI practice through systems thinking and bridging data governance and transition studies.