Open data meets data justice

Public administrations continue to adopt open data initiatives. These initiatives involve creating, releasing, and re-using data sets on political, social, and economic aspects, which are published in machine-readable, interoperable formats and under open licenses. Yet, many open data initiatives adhering to these ‘techno-legal’ characteristics do not live up to their promises of enabling ‘vision’ (i.e., ensuring transparency) and ‘voice’ (i.e., enabling participation) for citizens, especially when algorithms and AI tools are integrated into the workings of public administrations. The conceptual framework of ‘data justice’ might help correct the direction. It addresses issues of ‘vision’ and ‘voice,’ focusing on who decides what data is generated, for what purposes, and for whose benefit. In this paper, we extend this framework to public administrations, given that public administrations already incorporate an orientation toward justice in practice, commonly referred to as social equity. Building on research from critical data studies and public administration, we present a conceptual framework called ‘open data justice’, and illustrate how this framework can be translated in practice by governments to promote justice in their open data initiatives. This contribution is intended to benefit researchers and practitioners seeking to operationalise justice in open data governance, thus reframing the study and practice of open data in public administration.