Dashboards as boundary objects: shaping data-policy boundaries in complex policy domains

Authors Wybren van Rij
Published in Government Information Quarterly
Publication date 2026
Research groups Public health and public safety
Type Article

Summary

Governments increasingly deploy dashboards to connect data with policymaking, extending their use from well-bounded domains such as traffic monitoring into complex and ethically sensitive areas such as public health, climate change, and crime prevention. Yet the dominant view that treats dashboards as neutral instruments for transferring information across the data-policy boundary cannot account for the persistent misalignments and value tensions reported in such domains. This study demonstrates that dashboards in complex domains function as boundary objects that actively reshape the very boundaries they are meant to bridge. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the View on Organized Crime dashboard used by Dutch municipalities, the analysis identifies four distinct data-policy boundary sites (cognitive, actionability, social, and systemic) and shows that each demands sustained negotiation over meanings, interests, and values rather than the straightforward information transfer that dashboards promise. The resulting data-policy boundary framework operationalizes the ‘knowledge in policy’ perspective for digital government and reframes dashboards from instant decision-support tools into negotiation platforms that catalyze organizational learning in complex policy domains.

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Language English
Published in Government Information Quarterly
Year and volume 43 2
Key words boundaries, boundary objects, dashboards, policy analytics, organized crime prevention, data-policy allignment
Digital Object Identifier 10.1016/j.giq.2026.102144
Page range 1-14

Public health and public safety