Ms Jo Bates

Lecturer in Information Studies and Society

BA (Keele), MA (Nottingham), MA (Manchester Metropolitan)

Research interests

I will soon be submitting my PhD, which is a neo-Gramscian analysis of the UK government’s Open Government Data strategy. My research aims to examine the converging political and economic pressures from civil society, business and state institutions in the emergence and development of the initiative. Specific areas of research interest include Open Data advocacy, commercial re-use of public sector information, state transparency, the political economy of information, democratic and civic participation, and neo-Gramscian International Political Economy.

My broader interests lie in the field of the political economy of data and information. This interest is particularly focused on the intersections and relations between civil society ‘interest groups’ that are organising around informational issues (e.g. Open Data, Open Access, Free and Open Source software, Wikileaks, The Pirate Party), business interests including transnational corporations, financial markets, SMEs and entrepreneurs, and governing institutions such as local and national governments and international organisations. In particular, I am interested in how the interrelations between these groups shape the information policy and legislative environment e.g. re-use of public sector information, data protection and privacy, intellectual property rights, and right to information.

Teaching activities

Module co-ordinator for INF121 Informatics in Society

Key publications

Bates, J, 2012, ‘This is what modern de-regulation looks like’: co-optation and contestation in the United Kingdom’s Open Government Data initiative, Journal of Community Informatics (Special Issue on Open Data), 8(2), Available online: ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/845/916

Bates, J & Rowley, J, 2011, ‘Social reproduction and exclusion in subject indexing: a comparison of public library OPACs and LibraryThing folksonomy’, Journal of Documentation, 67(3), pp.431 – 448.

Bates, J. 2012, Building consent: strategy and power in the development of the United Kingdom’s Open Government Data initiative at 22nd World Congress of Political Science, Madrid, July 2012