02 April 2026
How I built the Reception Index
A short, practical account of designing a transparent index that cities could actually use to compare themselves honestly.
methodscities
How I built the Reception Index
The Reception Index began with a frustration: cities wanted to compare their reception practice and couldn't, because every city measured something different and called the result the same word.
We settled on five dimensions — access, information, participation, services, and accountability — each scored from public documentation and validated through site visits. We published the method, the data, and the disagreements.
The point was never a league table. The point was a shared vocabulary, so cities could argue about the right things instead of arguing about what they were arguing about.