Suchergebnisse

Part 4: eParticipation Initiatives and Country Studies ; International audience ; In the context of local civic governance, much of the interest in e-Participation concerns the extent to which online media might overcome the limitations of geography and scale, and so allow local interests to be better represented in institutionally driven participatory processes at national or regional level. In contrast, this study investigates the online deliberations of a local, geographically bounded community in a series of mailing lists that had originated from their own initiative and self-organisation. The interactions we observe challenges assumptions of democratic deliberation as mainly policy debate between citizens and government, or of lobbying administrative government. It also proposes a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance, where instrumental decision-making and developing consensus is frequently over privileged in research.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a framework supporting the design and evaluation of e‐government projects, especially those involving voluntary and community organisations.Design/methodology/approachThe research adapts a socio‐economic model of community sustainability, reinterpreting it in the context of e‐government. It documents the evolution of a conceptual framework for evaluative design through study of a project in London, UK. An interpretive approach was adopted, within which research was guided by the structured‐case method.FindingsThe research provides an evaluative framework for e‐government projects featuring four forms of community capital: infrastructural, environmental, human and social. An ex post evaluation illustrates how the framework identifies design and management issues that are not considered by conventional evaluative frameworks.Research limitations/implicationsThe main sources of data reflect project management perspectives and information from monitoring the evolution of activities undertaken by participant organisations. There has been limited direct engagement with the latter and the next phase of research will apply the framework from their perspectives to identify factors promoting and inhibiting ongoing engagement with the system.Practical implicationsThe framework provides an analytic tool for designers and managers of e‐government systems, especially those which feature online community building as a strategic outcome. All project stakeholders can use the framework to structure engagement with system design and management.Originality/valueThe distinctive contribution is to reinterpret e‐government from a community development perspective. It offers a means of identifying project shortcomings ignored by methods taking a narrower approach to e‐government information systems development.