How it works
Evidence → Discoveries (Observations → Patterns)
The Civic Atlas explores potential connections between different civic activities.
It brings together information about organisations, places and activities across Birmingham, then examines that information to see what might become visible when different pieces are considered together.
The process produces Discoveries: things the Atlas notices, connections it identifies, and questions it thinks may be worth exploring further. Some Discoveries ('Observations') are based directly on evidence; others ('Patterns') emerge when existing Discoveries are considered together.
The Atlas is deliberately exploratory. A Discovery is an analytical proposition, not a verified fact or a conclusion that the Atlas claims to have established. The evidence and reasoning behind Discoveries are therefore made visible, along with anything the available material does not establish.
While the Atlas is currently restricted to registered charities in Birmingham, it can work with evidence from many different sources, localities and types of organisation.
The Atlas starts with evidence
The Civic Atlas brings together information about organisations, neighbourhoods and other aspects of the civic landscape.
The aim is not simply to collect information, but to make it possible to consider pieces of evidence alongside one another.
Where the Atlas makes an Observation about an organisation or group of organisations, it aims to show the evidence on which that Observation is based.
Evidence is presented as specific statements from identified sources, rather than treating an entire source as though everything it contains supports every conclusion.
…then Discoveries
After the evidence is gathered, the Atlas examines it for potential Discoveries – things that may be useful to notice or investigate further.
There are two levels of Discoveries in this process: firstly Observations and then Patterns.
From evidence to Observations
An Observation is a Discovery arising directly from the examination of source evidence. It may describe something about an organisation, a group of organisations, a place, an activity or a relationship.
An Observation is not necessarily surprising or significant on its own. Its value may become clearer when it is considered alongside other Discoveries.
The research process can produce many possible Observations. Some may be uncertain or incomplete; others may overlap with something the Atlas has already noticed, or fall outside the scope of the current Atlas.
These possibilities are therefore not automatically published. They can be examined, compared and assessed as part of the Atlas's research process.
From Observations to Patterns
Some connections only become visible when different Discoveries are considered together.
A Pattern is a Discovery that emerges from considering existing Discoveries together. It identifies a potential connection, relationship or broader theme that may not be apparent when looking at individual Discoveries in isolation.
For example, organisations working in very different areas may each have reason to consider the same issue, even though none of them is addressing it in quite the same way. Considering their Observations together may reveal a potential Pattern worth investigating.
Patterns are therefore not simply larger Observations. They are a way of asking what Discoveries might reveal when viewed together as part of a wider civic landscape.
In fact, Patterns can be derived from both types of Discovery – Observations and other Patterns – or a combination of the two.
Patterns link back to the Discoveries from which they emerged, allowing the reasoning behind them to be explored.
Understanding Discoveries
Discovery
A Discovery is an analytical proposition arising from the Atlas's research process.
Discoveries include both Observations and Patterns.
A Discovery is not a verified fact or a conclusion that the Atlas claims to have established.
Observation
An Observation is a Discovery arising directly from the examination of source evidence.
Pattern
A Pattern is a Discovery that emerges when existing Discoveries are considered together, identifying a potential connection, relationship or broader theme.
Lens
The lens describes the perspective through which a Discovery was developed.
The Atlas currently uses two lenses:
- General – looking for potentially useful observations across the available evidence.
- Lateral – deliberately looking beyond the most obvious interpretation or connection.
Confidence
Confidence describes how strongly the available material supports a Discovery as an analytical proposition.
It does not mean that the Discovery has been independently verified as fact.
Source evidence
Source evidence shows the specific evidence statements underlying an Observation.
Remaining uncertainties
Remaining uncertainties identify things the available material does not establish, or questions that remain unresolved.
Additional evidence needed
Additional evidence needed identifies evidence that could help investigate a Discovery further.
Useful comparisons
Useful comparisons identify organisations or other comparisons that may help explore a Discovery further.
From Discoveries to the public Atlas
The research process can produce many more Discoveries than the public Atlas needs to show.
The public Atlas is curated rather than exhaustive. It publishes selected Patterns that offer useful or interesting ways of understanding connections between different civic activities, together with the Observations from which those Patterns were derived.
This means that a Discovery can be part of the Atlas's research without appearing in the public Atlas.
It also means that the absence of an Observation or Pattern from the public Atlas does not necessarily mean that the Atlas has not found it, or that it has been rejected.
Publication is a separate editorial decision about what is useful to expose publicly.