E-petition Data Mining: Looking for Contemporary Utopias
The history of petitioning in the UK is long and rich, with its latest chapter still unfolding through the introduction of e-petition platforms—first by the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and then by its British counterpart in 2011. Analysing data from e-petitions has made it possible to draw instructi...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Angles
2025
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | The history of petitioning in the UK is long and rich, with its latest chapter still unfolding through the introduction of e-petition platforms—first by the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and then by its British counterpart in 2011. Analysing data from e-petitions has made it possible to draw instructive conclusions on this enduring form of political participation. Yet there is still much to learn about the Westminster platform and its users. The current article thus proposes to explore what utopian aspirations of the British public might be revealed by an empirical approach based on text mining of e-petition data and what dystopian trends petitions might be meant to address. To carry out this study, metadata pertaining to the 162.675 e-petitions published by the British Parliament between 2011 and 2022, during the mandates of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson was analysed. Such an analysis reveals that if petitions can be viewed as expressions of utopias in the form of alternatives to political and social realities, then evidence exists of a sustained wish to present such alternatives throughout the period under consideration via the UK parliamentary e-petition platform, particularly in reaction to dystopian trends disturbing to users like mounting violence, social precarity or growing erosion of political institutions. Moreover, a general wish for protection from dystopian evolutions is the most marked trend in the dataset as well as a desire to restore order and control, mainly via regulation and legislation. However, those general trends conceal signs of divisions in the demands being formulated and in public attitudes. The article concludes with remarks on the potential benefits and drawbacks of the digital tools used in the context of this study. |
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