44 research outputs found
New development: Directly elected mayors in Italy: creating a strong leader doesn’t mean creating strong leadership
More than 20 years after their introduction, directly elected mayors are key players in Italian urban governance. This article explains the main effects of this reform on local government systems and provides lessons for other countries considering directly elected mayors
The "Dark Side" of Big Data: Private and Public Interaction in Social Surveillance, How data collections by private entities affect governmental social control and how the EU reform on data protection responds
The revolution in social analysis due to Big Data and
their predictive capacities poses different questions
related to risks of asymmetries in the control over information.
In order to have access to this technology and to exploit
its power, it is necessary to have the availability of large
data sets and to invest heavily in equipment and
research. Only governments and big companies have
these resources and, consequently, are able to exercise
such control over digital information both to enhance
their performances and to enhance their control over
individuals. Considering the role of government agencies
and their increasing requests of information to the
private sector for public security purposes, it appears
necessary to adopt specific rules in order to regulate the
information flow, to define the rights over data and to
ensure adequate enforcement. If it is true that information
is often publicly available, it is also true that the line
between the public and private sphere will become even
more blurred in the Big Data era. After a brief introduction
(I.) this article first outlines the new scenario of Big
Data (II.) before analyzing the governments’ interplay
with private entities which crucially enhances their
social control (III.). Finally, the currently envisaged
changes by the EU reform on data protection are scrutinized
in their potential effects on the future of social control
(IV.)