Performative Transparency and the Politics of Data Disclosure

• In Event: 30821 - Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 16

Abstract

In the U.S., states engage in different data disclosure practices when faced with Public Records Act or Freedom of Information Act data requests, but scholars have yet to interrogate how sociopolitical factors affect state data disclosure decisions. We analyzed data disclosure decisions from 50 states in response to our request for data on prison entry demographics. We find that states who provide data frequently engage in data collection and dissemination practices that make data on incarceration demographics opaque. These practices of what we term performative transparency do not, however, correlate with political ideology, but occur in states across the political spectrum. In our paper, we will present our results and analyze why performative transparency appears to be a phenomenon that occurs across the political spectrum.

Authors

• Amelia Roskin-Frazee, University of California-Irvine

• Christine Head, University of California-Irvine