Have we passed peak transparency? Are we moving into an era when more of the things that shape our lives will be opaque? And if so, how should we cope? In this GB Geo-Blog post I argue that something fundamental is, indeed, changing in the world – from technology to business and geopolitics – and that ideas that served us well in the past need to be updated. Transparency as an Unalloyed Good Most of us were brought up to believe that if only we could make things more transpa

I had a go in late 2020 at creating a matrix for thinking about algorithmic governance (to feed into discusions at UCL led by my colleague Zeynep Engin). This matrix tries to map the many spaces in which algorithmic governance is happening. It suggests a simple taxonomy – government with, by, for, of algorithms – to help map the work programme for potential centre focused on the topic. The idea is then to look cell by cell at where the current stock of ideas and proposals ar

It’s easy to be dismissive of the government’s long-awaited plans for levelling up, published this week. Earlier statements were feeble. Political rhetoric ran far ahead of action. And any moves now come after a decade of severe cuts, many concentrated on precisely the areas that are meant to benefit from levelling up. Nor is it wise of the government to claim that the White Paper sets ‘out a complete ‘system change’ of how government works that will be implemented to leve