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2.1. A systemic governance view on eParticipation

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The DemocrIT? research group (Örebro University) is aiming for a more comprehensive understanding on the conditions for e-participation and e-democracy by pulling together insights from four different disciplines: informatics, political science, history and media and communication studies. Taking on this challenge DemocrIT? is involved with empirical research and theoretical questions ranging from the invigoration of formal politics to the ‘explosion’ of informal politics, from global trends to local responses, and from political ideas to technical practices.

One important perspective is that of the public sphere. Put simply, the public sphere is comprised of any and all locations, physical or virtual, where ideas and feelings relevant to politics are transmitted and exchanged openly. The public sphere perspective thus leads us to study not only the declining tendencies and struggles for renewal within formal political institutions (parties, governments, parliaments etc) but also politics in a broader sense, for instance journalism and activist networks. Drawing on the literature on multi-level governance, we also find it important to study how local and global is linked, why and what that means.

In brief summary, DemocrIT?’s approach is one of governance in which eParticipation is seen not as distinct but included – intricately enmeshed – in governance processes which only partly can be separated out as purely political. Most of them are “service” and “administrative” processes but with a political element, which may be direct or indirect. DemocrIT? do aim at a comprehensive understanding of the relation between technology and humans, and the following figure 1 explains the general approach:

Figure 1: Basic spheres and relations in a democratic government system

Basic spheres and relations in a democratic government system (see figure 1) include formal politics, Administration and civil society. Arrows indicate influence, and circles indicate domains of control. Domain intersections indicate “transaction zones” where control is negotiated by e g lobbyists and media on the left-hand side, intermediary service deliverers on the right-hand side and professional interaction in government boards and committees on the top side. As IT not only permeates but also interrelates all spheres:

eParticipation changes the (power) relations among actors in societal processes.
These changes are not only the planned ones, but emerge as use becomes institutionalized (“structured”, “inscribed”…)

Technology comes in as an infrastructure where the development crystallizes, or, as in terms of Structuration Theory, where the new institutional settings are gradually structured (figure 2):

Figure 2: A structurational model of technology (based on but extending that of Orlikowski 1992, p. 410)

The theory developed out of this approach is explained in detail under Theory of eGovernance information systems.

References:

Orlikowski, W.J. (1992) The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organizations Science, Vol 3, No 3, pp. 398-427.

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2.1. A systemic governance view on eParticipation