This article was originally published in July 2017.
in New Zealand, there have been some interesting initiatives in the use of ‘big data’ and how it can inform social policy development.
In a recent article in the New Zealand Herald, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, the New Zealand Prime Minister’s chief science advisor, ‘warned about the pitfalls in using big data and analytics for social policy development’.
He has released a discussion paper, called ‘Using evidence to inform social policy: the role of citizen-based analytics’, in collaboration between the Government of New Zealand and the European Commission. This novel research collaboration explores how big data can assist governments in the complex areas of social policy development and evaluation. According to Sir Peter, ‘The goal is to understand the extent to which data combined with emerging biological, behavioural and social sciences can lead to useful new insights about the multiple interacting causes of poor life outcomes’.
The paper discusses both the benefits and limitations of using big data to inform social policy. One particular benefit is the capacity to take a more holistic view of the life-course by merging policy domains that previously have been treated separately. The paper also discusses how such approaches can have an impact on the policy formation process itself.
Sir Peter: ‘We are using insights from cutting edge social and behavioural sciences to underpin the powerful new tool of citizen-based analytics. This gives us the potential to gain unprecedented understanding of what interventions could work best, with whom and in what context.’