A Computational Text Analysis Approach to Investigating Public Discourse and Participation in the Case of the 2022 Arizona Legislative Study Committee on Housing

Abstract

There is increasing interest in participatory processes as a means to deal with complexity in governance challenges. It is thought to improve decision-making and outcomes by incorporating diverse values and knowledge and generating creative solutions through dialogue and deliberation. Who communicates, who has decision-making authority, and in what context the communication occurs shape the participants, the institutions they create, and the interactions they have within social-ecological systems? We build on the growing public discourse scholarship field to demonstrate how who communicates and who has decision-making authority shapes the institutions that are created. We demonstrate how computational text analysis methods may be used to investigate public discourse. Our study is the first application of these methods to public discourse of which we are aware.