Civic Data at the Seams

Key findings from this study

This research indicates that:

• Seams between multiple institutions and stakeholders become visible primarily during operational breakdowns rather than in normal functioning.
• Underlying infrastructure shifts—including product development, personnel turnover, and institutional change—cause seams to decay over time.
• Maintenance work required to sustain or recreate alignment reveals and reinforces existing power dynamics between collaborating stakeholders.

Overview

This research examines civic data production through the analytical concept of seams—the misalignments and boundaries between multiple stakeholders and institutions. The authors analyzed a civic data project mapping extreme heat islands as a case study to understand how seams operate, degrade, and mediate power dynamics in collaborative environmental and climate justice work.

Methods and approach

The authors conducted participant observation and documentation during planning and execution of a civic heat island mapping project. They analyzed breakdown moments when seams became visible, traced how misalignments emerged from product development, personnel changes, and institutional shifts, and examined maintenance work required to sustain alignment across institutional boundaries.

Results

Seams became most apparent during operational breakdowns when multiple infrastructures failed to align. The research reveals that seamful arrangements are inherently temporal; they decay as underlying systems evolve through technological updates, staff transitions, and organizational restructuring. The authors identified that repairing or re-creating alignment requires substantial maintenance work and creates opportunities where power dynamics become particularly visible and contestable. Civic data practitioners must actively manage these seamful spaces rather than treating them as incidental features of collaboration.

Implications

Civic design interventions that engage multiple city stakeholders cannot treat alignment as a one-time achievement. Designers and practitioners must develop sustained attention to how seams shift over project lifecycles and anticipate degradation from institutional change. This framing redirects focus from technical integration alone toward the political and temporal work embedded in cross-institutional collaboration. Recognition of these dynamics enables more realistic project planning and power-aware intervention strategies.

Scope and limitations

This summary is based on the study abstract and available metadata. It does not include a full analysis of the complete paper, supplementary materials, or underlying datasets unless explicitly stated. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the original publication.