Facing the ambiguities of participation in data-driven projects: a systematic literature review

Judith Faßbender; Irina Kuehnlein; Tristan Henderson

doi:10.1017/dap.2025.16

Facing the ambiguities of participation in data-driven projects: a systematic literature review

Judith Faßbender^*, Irina Kuehnlein, Tristan Henderson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Participation is a prevalent topic in many areas, and data-driven projects are no exception. While the term generally has positive connotations, ambiguities in participatory approaches between facilitators and participants are often noted. How facilitators can handle these ambiguities, however, has been less studied. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review of participatory data-driven projects. We analyse 27 cases regarding their openness for participation and where participation most often occurs in the data lifecycle. From our analysis, we describe three typical project structures of participatory data-driven projects, combining a focus on labour and resource participation and/or rule- and decision-making participation with the general setup of the project as
participatory-informed or participatory-at-core. From these combinations, different ambiguities arise. We discuss mitigations for these ambiguities through project policies and procedures for each type of project. Mitigating and
clarifying ambiguities can support a more transparent and problem-oriented application of participatory processes in data-driven projects.

Original language	English
Article number	e41
Pages (from-to)	1-23
Number of pages	23
Journal	Data & Policy
Volume	7
Early online date	3 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2025.16
Publication status	Published - 2025

Keywords

Participation
Data governance
Data handling
Systematic literature review

Access to Document

10.1017/dap.2025.16

Faßbender-et-al-2025-Facing-the-ambiguities-Data&Policy-7-e41-CCBY
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Final published version, 921 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{cf180f60351e477a82ab36c919d2e86e,

title = "Facing the ambiguities of participation in data-driven projects: a systematic literature review",

abstract = "Participation is a prevalent topic in many areas, and data-driven projects are no exception. While the term generally has positive connotations, ambiguities in participatory approaches between facilitators and participants are often noted. How facilitators can handle these ambiguities, however, has been less studied. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review of participatory data-driven projects. We analyse 27 cases regarding their openness for participation and where participation most often occurs in the data lifecycle. From our analysis, we describe three typical project structures of participatory data-driven projects, combining a focus on labour and resource participation and/or rule- and decision-making participation with the general setup of the project asparticipatory-informed or participatory-at-core. From these combinations, different ambiguities arise. We discuss mitigations for these ambiguities through project policies and procedures for each type of project. Mitigating andclarifying ambiguities can support a more transparent and problem-oriented application of participatory processes in data-driven projects.",

keywords = "Participation, Data governance, Data handling, Systematic literature review",

author = "Judith Fa{\ss}bender and Irina Kuehnlein and Tristan Henderson",

note = "Funding: This research is part of the first author{\textquoteright}s doctoral research, which is funded by a grant from the German Ministry of Education and Research (01IS20058) at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and a School of Computer Science Handsel Scholarship from the University of St Andrews.",

year = "2025",

doi = "10.1017/dap.2025.16",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

pages = "1--23",

journal = "Data & Policy",

issn = "2632-3249",

publisher = "Cambridge University Press",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Facing the ambiguities of participation in data-driven projects

T2 - a systematic literature review

AU - Faßbender, Judith

AU - Kuehnlein, Irina

AU - Henderson, Tristan

N1 - Funding: This research is part of the first author’s doctoral research, which is funded by a grant from the German Ministry of Education and Research (01IS20058) at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and a School of Computer Science Handsel Scholarship from the University of St Andrews.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Participation is a prevalent topic in many areas, and data-driven projects are no exception. While the term generally has positive connotations, ambiguities in participatory approaches between facilitators and participants are often noted. How facilitators can handle these ambiguities, however, has been less studied. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review of participatory data-driven projects. We analyse 27 cases regarding their openness for participation and where participation most often occurs in the data lifecycle. From our analysis, we describe three typical project structures of participatory data-driven projects, combining a focus on labour and resource participation and/or rule- and decision-making participation with the general setup of the project asparticipatory-informed or participatory-at-core. From these combinations, different ambiguities arise. We discuss mitigations for these ambiguities through project policies and procedures for each type of project. Mitigating andclarifying ambiguities can support a more transparent and problem-oriented application of participatory processes in data-driven projects.

AB - Participation is a prevalent topic in many areas, and data-driven projects are no exception. While the term generally has positive connotations, ambiguities in participatory approaches between facilitators and participants are often noted. How facilitators can handle these ambiguities, however, has been less studied. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review of participatory data-driven projects. We analyse 27 cases regarding their openness for participation and where participation most often occurs in the data lifecycle. From our analysis, we describe three typical project structures of participatory data-driven projects, combining a focus on labour and resource participation and/or rule- and decision-making participation with the general setup of the project asparticipatory-informed or participatory-at-core. From these combinations, different ambiguities arise. We discuss mitigations for these ambiguities through project policies and procedures for each type of project. Mitigating andclarifying ambiguities can support a more transparent and problem-oriented application of participatory processes in data-driven projects.

KW - Participation

KW - Data governance

KW - Data handling

KW - Systematic literature review

UR - https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28226423.v1

U2 - 10.1017/dap.2025.16

DO - 10.1017/dap.2025.16

M3 - Article

SN - 2632-3249

VL - 7

SP - 1

EP - 23

JO - Data & Policy

JF - Data & Policy

M1 - e41

ER -

Facing the ambiguities of participation in data-driven projects: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this