Data, Discourse, and Power: Communication Dynamics in Governing Sustainable Urban Mobility Indonesia

Abstract

Data is often positioned as an objective and rational basis for policy decision-making. However, divergences between data-based claims and lived social realities indicate that such data do not always function as a neutral representation. They play an active role in shaping power relations and policy communication. This study aims to analyse the dynamics of communication in the governance of sustainable urban mobility by positioning data as a discursive practice intertwined with power. The study employs Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis of six key policy and governance documents. The findings reveal four discursive mechanisms: first, data are constructed as an epistemic authority that is difficult to contest. Second, the authority enables technocratic framing that depoliticizes mobility issues by translating social concerns into technical matters. Third, this process produces discursive exclusion, whereby certain experiences become invisible within policy representations. Fourth, the assemblage culminates in a symbolic shift of accountability from political actors to systems and technical indicators.