Digital transformation and public communication in local governments

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• CDS: The Centre for a Digital Society

Digital data are transforming how we understand local governments, offering new ways to analyse communication, policy impact, and institutional dynamics in real time; this event presents a research agenda developed within the Instant Analytics research group, combining digital methods and high-frequency data to study public-sector performance and local governance.

This event invites participants to explore how digital transformation is reshaping local governments and how new forms of data can improve our understanding of public action. The seminar presents a broader line of research focused on local governance, with the aim of analysing how municipalities communicate with citizens, how public policies affect their digital capacity, and how institutional factors influence government behaviour.

The research is developed within the Instant Analytics research group, an interdisciplinary team that combines economics, data science, and communication to study socio-economic phenomena using digital data in real time. By integrating sources such as social media and other digital traces with traditional information, this approach makes it possible to observe and evaluate public-sector dynamics with unprecedented timeliness and detail.

The purpose of the event is to show how these methods can be applied to the study of local governments, offering new insights into public communication, policy effectiveness, and institutional performance. It also aims to open a discussion on how innovative data and analytical tools can support researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in better understanding and improving public governance.