Centre for Digital Citizenship

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Centre for Digital Citizenship
Success, Failure Challenges of
eParticipation Ann Macintosh Professor of
Digital Governance Centre for Digital
Citizenship Institute of Communications
Studies The University of Leeds, Email
A.Macintosh_at_leeds.ac.uk
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eParticipation perspectives
Measuring political, social democractic effects
Evaluation Impact
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Success, failure challengesEquity

• Failures in current state
• Lack of understanding how divides impact on
  representativeness of eParticipation
• Limited reliability and acceptability of
  eParticipation decisions

• Challenges for success
• Acknowledging multi-cultural and multi-ethnic
  society
• Understanding factors of exclusion
• Role of mass media to reach excluded sections of
  society

?
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Success, failure challengesInstitutions and
Stakeholders

• Failures in current state
• Institutional political resistance to
  eParticipation
• Lack of commitment from elected representatives
• Overlapping initiatives by public agencies

• Challenges for success
• Create environment and culture to engage with
  eParticipation
• Online visibility and internal communication
• Understanding problem-solving and power-sharing

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Success, failure challengesInformation
systems

• Failures in current state
• Dependent choice of technology design and
  application for research
• Lack of formal representation of information

• Challenges for success
• Change of emphasis to a holistic view of design
  and application
• eParticipation design environment
• Advancing knowledge technologies

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Inclusive eParticipation

• Focus on growing multi-cultural and multi-ethnic
  shape of society
• How eInclusion research can benefit
  eParticipation
• Investigating relevance of technology devices

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Representatives and eParticipation

• Investigating relevance and added value of
  eParticipation to engage politicians
• Understanding what politicians think about
  eParticipation

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Social Networks and eParticipation

• How formal consultations are taken up by public
  sphere
• How effectively online consultations are
  inter-connected with other sites on same
  public-policy issue

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Understanding the conversation supporting
deliberation

• Capturing the meaning of public debate
• Investigating multi-media information to support
  debate
• Supporting moderation facilitation

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Cultural normative differences

• Does political participation have common
  meanings across Europe amongst different social
  actors?
• How are key terms relating to eParticipation used
  applied by various actors?

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eParticipation Research Priorities
Quality and Impact of eParticipation

• Focus on how eParticipation affects democracy
• Integrating criteria and methods for assessing
  eParticipation
• Investigating long term impacts

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Conclusions

• Current eParticipation is both a success and a
  failure!

Needs more inter-disciplinary research Needs
consideration of a range of technologies (old and
new) Needs commitment from all stakeholders
Thank you