Evaluating the application of NLP tools in mainstream participatory budgeting processes in Scotland
This research addresses the problem of scaling participatory budgeting for local governments in Scotland, but it is incremental as it applies existing NLP tools to a new domain context.
The paper evaluates the use of the NLP-based digital platform Consul to address challenges in scaling up participatory budgeting processes across Scotland's 32 local authorities, with initial results indicating that NLP technology can improve citizen participation effectiveness based on prior controlled evaluations.
In recent years participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland has grown from a handful of community-led processes to a movement supported by local and national government. This is epitomized by an agreement between the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) that at least 1% of local authority budgets will be subject to PB. This ongoing research paper explores the challenges that emerge from this 'scaling up' or 'mainstreaming' across the 32 local authorities that make up Scotland. The main objective is to evaluate local authority use of the digital platform Consul, which applies Natural Language Processing (NLP) to address these challenges. This project adopts a qualitative longitudinal design with interviews, observations of PB processes, and analysis of the digital platform data. Thematic analysis is employed to capture the major issues and themes which emerge. Longitudinal analysis then explores how these evolve over time. The potential for 32 live study sites provides a unique opportunity to explore discrete political and social contexts which materialize and allow for a deeper dive into the challenges and issues that may exist, something a wider cross-sectional study would miss. Initial results show that issues and challenges which come from scaling up may be tackled using NLP technology which, in a previous controlled use case-based evaluation, has shown to improve the effectiveness of citizen participation.