The New Public Analytics as an Emerging Paradigm in Public Sector Administration

Abstract

The turn to data-driven approaches within public administration to inform (and even to automate) public sector decision-making can be understood as an emerging movement that I call the ‘New Public Analytics’ (‘NPA’). Central to the New Public Analytics is the use of data analytics a form of computational analysis that has its theoretical foundations in data science and statistics, involving the application of software algorithms (including but not limited to machine learning algorithms) to large data sets in order to identify patterns and correlations in the data capable of generating ‘actionable’ insight. The lecture will explore, amongst other things, the problematic and potentially dangerous pathologies of NPA, underpinning the need for lawyers to critically scrutinise these developments in order to identify ways in which law can be harnessed to ensure that adequate public accountability for NPA techniques is ensured.