Embracing the future of the policy sciences: big data in pedagogy and practice

Although the emergence of Big Data provides an opportunity to synthesize and mobilize ever greater amounts of policy-relevant knowledge, it has not received adequate attention in studies of policy pedagogy and practice. In this chapter, we highlight the relevance of Big Data to policy analysis, policy implementation, and policy studies through a discussion of basic machine learning techniques and an illustration of their application in the case of better understanding policy response to COVID-19. Subsequently – based on a bibliometric review of nearly 2,500 publications on big data in public policy and content analysis of course titles and descriptions in 122 programs worldwide – we make an evidence-informed appeal to increase the uptake of big data in policy research as well as teaching. We conclude that appropriate engagement with the big data phenomenon can help the policy sciences remain relevant and move a step closer to integrating policy research, pedagogy, and practice.