May 2024
Rob Kitchin is a professor at the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute. Rob is principal investigator on the Data Stories project (funded by the European Research Council, 2022-2027) and was principal investigator for the Building City Dashboards project (funded by Science Foundation Ireland, 2016-21),the Programmable City project (funded by the European Research Council, 2013-18), the Digital Repository of Ireland (2009-2017) and the All-Island Research Observatory (2005-2017).
Rob discusses the research he is currently working on below.
Tell me about the research you are working on?
Our present project is titled ‘Data Stories: Telling Stories About Planning and Property Data’. It is funded by the European Research Council and runs over five years. The project is divided into two phases. The first phase involves interviewing stakeholders from state, business and civil society about their data, their data management and governance, and their views about the planning and property data ecosystem, as well as conducting data audits. The second phase consists of 12 case studies, either with a specific organisation or focusing on a particular issue, with three data stories being produced per case: one by the research team, one by an artist, and one by the stakeholder participants. We’re presently 20 months into the work. So far we have conducted recorded interviews with 146 actors in more than 90 organisations, and undertaken informal interviews and meetings with another 60+ people. Six of our case studies are presently underway.
Why is this research important?
Planning and property data are very important as they are central to how places are understood and managed, they inform government housing, planning and development policy, shape public perception, and guide billions of euros of investment. Yet the property and planning data ecosystem is fragmented and weakly organised, with many data silos, and there are numerous issues relating to data governance, data sharing, and data quality and continuity. No one organisation has a full understanding of what data are produced across state, business and civil society, or a sense of the data veracity and extent to which it can be trusted.
Have you come across any challenges in carrying out this research?
The key issue for our project is gaining access to key stakeholder organisations and persuading them to share their knowledge, views and work relating to data, and being able to undertake a data audit. While some organisations have been very open, others are more cautious. We are not looking to access their data, but rather discover what data they handle and to understand their position and role in the data ecosystem. Everyone will gain by knowing the full extent of data ecosystem as they will discover data and potential partnerships that might add insight and value to their own work.
How can this research be used to influence housing policy or practice?
The aim of the project is to better understand the planning and property data ecosystem – how it is constituted and works, what data exists and their veracity, how data is used to inform policy formation and organisational decision making, and to identify significant data gaps and weaknesses – in order to consider how we might improve the evidence-base that underpins a critical aspect of society. The more comprehensive and valid our data is, the stronger the knowledge, decisions and practical action derived from it.
What is an interesting piece of housing research you have read recently? Irish or international.
I think the two recent reports by Cian O’Callaghan and Kathleen Stokes on urban vacancy and vacancy data in Ireland are interesting pieces of work as they highlight the difficulties of capturing some phenomena and the contested nature of this data. There have been several data debates in Ireland in recent years relating to vacancy, commencements, completions, building costs, number of landlords, and homelessness, where the veracity of official data has been challenged.
http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/95290/RUV%20final%20report%2016FEB2021%20FINAL.pdf
http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/103170/RUV-report_09082023.pdf?sequence=5
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