Doing “Good” with Data? Understanding and Working Around Data Doubles in Human Services Organizations

Human services represent the largest portion of US federal spending, accounting for almost three-quarters of the entire budget. Under the federalist system, decision-making authority is shared by the federal, state and local governments, which decentralizes responsibility for the delivery of social services across several levels of government and nonprofit organizations. This research illustrates that in order to support the innovative use of big data that many desire in the social sector, more diverse stakeholders need to be involved in the design and implementation of data systems so that they may better meet the needs of clients, staff and the community. Together, this empirical work contributes a detailed analysis of data work across multi-level, computer-supported cooperative work in the human services domain.