Creating Data Publics for Governance explores projects from Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) where citizens interact with data through creative and cultural methods to explore understandings and relationships with place.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)
Under the Knowledge Mobilization Scheme, “Synthesising research on envisioning governance systems that work”.
As decision-making structures for local, regional and national governments increasingly prioritise data and evidence as resources for governance, a critical challenge facing democracies becomes the creation of public spaces in which these data can be considered and debated to enable equitable and effective governance systems.
We frame this challenge as a question of creating data publics – publics that are not only constituted by self-interest or shared identities but forged through citizens’ creative participatory engagement with data.

To address this challenge, our project examines how creative methods are being used in practice to bring such data publics into being.
We analyse examples in which artists, community organisers, and citizens engage data through creative, place-based processes, tracing when and how these methods are employed and how they shape collective forms of participation and decision-making. In doing so, we aim to better understand how creativity functions not only as a mode of expression but as a mechanism for democratic engagement with data.
This project is a collaboration between researchers at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and University of Southampton (UK).

Explore the cases
Following a scoping review, 15 projects from Canada and 15 projects from the UK were identified for closer exploration.
These projects were selected at the meeting point of creative methods and citizen participation in place-based decision-making. This analysis was structured using Sabina Leonelli’s cycle of knowledge production (from the article ‘what distinguishes data from models?’).

CAN 2 by STEPS Public Art
I HeART Main Street

CAN 3 by STEPS Public Art
and ReDefine Arts
Accessible Art and Placemaking

CAN 4 by STEPS Public Art
Inspired Art Impact: A Toolkit for Mainstreet Cultural Tourism

CAN 5 by ReDefine Arts
The Countdown Public Art Project

CAN 6 by Greater Victoria
Placemaking Network

CAN 7
by Walk With Me

CAN 8 by Calgary Municipal
Land Corporation
Touch Traces project from Jack & Jean Leslie RiverWalk Murals

CAN 9 by Calgary Municipal
Land Corporation
Bridge project from Jack & Jean Leslie RiverWalk Murals

CAN 10 Calgary Municipal
Land Corporation
Werklund Centre Transformation (WTC)

CAN 11 Calgary Municipal
Land Corporation
Olympic Plaza Transformation (OPT)

CAN 12 Calgary Municipal
Land Corporation
Tomorrow’s Chinatown: Chinatown Cultural Plan

CAN 13 Led by Dr. Tara Mahoney
Creative Publics

CAN 14 by Deer Crossing The Art Farm
Copper Circle project

CAN 15 by Calgary Arts Development
Northeast Mini Galleries Program: Building Community Pride Through Public Art

UK 1 by Creative Peninsula
The Saltmarsh Project

UK 2 by Whitworth Art Gallery
Age Friendly Programme

UK 3 by Castlefield Gallery
The Ageing in Place Micro-residency Project

UK 4 by Nottingham Contemporary
First Waves

UK 5 by Nottingham Contemporary
Narrow Marsh Residents Group

UK 6 by Measuring Humanity
Art is Everywhere

UK 7 Led by Professor Nick Henry
(Coventry University)
City Change Through Culture: Securing the Place legacy of Coventry City of Culture 2021

UK 8 by The Glass-House
Community Led Design
Cross-pollination: Growing Cross-sector Design Collaboration in Placemaking

UK 9 by Design Innovation and Land Assets (DI&L) Network
Design Innovation and Cultural Resonances (Resonance): Place-based Collaboration

UK 10 led by Professor Nicky Marsh (University of Southampton)
Feeling Towns: Place, Identity
and Local Governance

UK 11 Led by Professor Andrew Wilson (University of Bradford)
People, Heritage, and Place:
Using Heritage to Enhance Community and Well-being in Saltaire, Bradford

UK 12 Led by Dr. Elizabeth Craig-Atkins (University of Sheffield)
Roots and Futures: Scaling Up and Sustaining Co-produced, Place-based Heritage with Underserved Communities

UK 13
by Citizens in Power

UK 14 by Primary
Build Create Play – Contemporary Visual Arts Network England

UK 15
by Homebaked Community Land Trust

UK 16 by GREENGAGE
East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood
Pilot Project
Project Team
Creating Data Publics for Governance is a collaboration between researchers at Simon Fraser University (Canada) and University of Southampton (UK):
- Dr Frédérik Lesage
(Principal Investigator; Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University) - Professor Dan Ashton
(Co-Investigator; Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, University of Southampton) - Xiaosu Li
(Research Assistant, Simon Fraser University) - Shafira Rezkita Vidyamaharani
(Research Assistant, Simon Fraser University)

