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Busch, Peter André; Henriksen, Helle Zinner
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170050
This study reviews 44 peer-reviewed articles on digital discretion published in the period from 1998 to January 2017. Street-level bureaucrats have traditionally had a wide ability to exercise discretion stirring debate since they can add their personal footprint to public policies. Digital discretion is suggested to reduce this footprint by influencing or replacing their discretionary practices using ICT. What is less researched is whether digital discretion can cause changes in public policy outcomes, and under what conditions such changes can occur. Using the concept of public service values, we suggest that digital discretion can strengthen ethical and democratic values but weaken professional and relational values. Furthermore, we conclude that contextual factors such as considerations made by policy makers on the macro-level and the degree of professionalization of street-level bureaucrats on the micro-level are important for understanding the diffusion and impact of digital discretion. In addition, inherent features of technology can be discussed at all levels in relation to their aims and tasks. We conclude that the scope of street-level bureaucracy is decreasing, and more and more street-level bureaucracies are turned into digital bureaucracies characterized by digital bureaucrats operating computers instead of interacting face-to-face with clients.
Meijer, Albert; Thaens, Marcel
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170422
The rapid deployment of technology in urban settings drastically changes the way urban safety is being governed. This article investigates smart governance of urban safety empirically through an in-depth case study of a project to improve the safety of a street in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. This collaboration between the city government, technology producers, knowledge institutes and owners of bars and restaurants entails the use of new technologies – noise detection, twitter analyses, data analysis, light interventions, gaming – for instantaneous monitoring and intervention. We analyze these smart governance practices from a socio-technological perspective. On the basis of our analysis, we qualify the case as a quantified street: enormous amounts of data are being collected to strengthen the governance of urban safety. The governance analysis showed that these actors shared the idea that more information results in better governance. External funding facilitated collaboration since money was no longer a scarce resource and technology became a ‘lens’ for building a shared understanding of the street. The relative absence of rules created the room for building innovative practices. In the conclusion, we raise questions concerning the strong focus on information as the key to a safer street and present an agenda for further research into the smart governance of urban safety.
Estermann, Beat; Fraefel, Marianne; Neuroni, Alessia C.; Vogel, Jürgen
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170033
A national data infrastructure (NDI) provides data, data-related services and guidelines for the re-use of data to individuals and organizations. It facilitates efficient sharing of data, supports new business models, and is thus a key enabler for the digital economy, open research, societal collaboration and political processes. While several European countries have taken steps to set up data infrastructures cutting across institutional silos, approaches vary, and there is no common understanding of what a NDI exactly comprises. In Switzerland, activities are still at a conceptual stage. In order to foster a shared vision of what a NDI is about, stakeholder interviews were carried out with representatives of public administration, research, civil society, and the private sector. There is broad consensus among key stakeholders that a NDI is to be conceived as a nationwide distributed technical infrastructure allowing the sharing of data, based on predefined rules. Our findings also suggest that the notion of a NDI should be approached from four perspectives: a big data, a base register, an open data, and a mydata perspective. For its implementation, effective coordination across several dimensions (ethical, legal, political, economical, organizational, semantical, and technical) is crucial, which calls for a truly multidisciplinary approach.
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170038
The development of the Internet and social platforms was expected to have a profound impact on citizens’ ability to influence politics, transforming traditional methods of political communication. This article examines the digital campaign strategy of the Internet MANA alliance during the 2014 New Zealand General Election. Internet MANA adopted digital strategies that had proven successful overseas and had the potential to radically transform New Zealand politics. The campaign, however, culminated in a disastrous electoral defeat. The article argues that online media strategies alone cannot explain election outcomes. Instead, we need to explore the ways in which digital campaign strategies interact with the electoral system, mainstream media and political ‘brands’. Going beyond the specifics of New Zealand politics, this article raises questions about the role of technology on political communication practices.
Adu, Kofi Koranteng; Patrick, Ngulube; Park, Eun G.; Adjei, Emmanuel
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170420
Poverty and lack of access to technology continues to pose a perpetual threat to Africa’s e-government implementation program. While significant progress in e-government has been chalked, huge disparities remain within and among African countries. This study examines the implementation progress of e-government in Ghana’s ministries and agencies. Based on Gartner’s maturity stage of e-government, underpinned by a quantitative approach, surveys were conducted in 182 government agencies. Findings of the study showed that e-government resources are available and used to facilitate e-government activities in government ministries and agencies. However, Public sector organizations are still plagued with infrastructural, economic and legal challenges and human resources in the development of e-government. It recommended that the Ghana’s government should expand the use of online services by adopting a more citizen-centric approach to promote e-government planning and implementation in infrastructure, law, human capacity.
Webster, C. William R.; Leleux, Charles
2018 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170065
Citizens increasingly contribute directly to the evolution of sustainable cities, in particular where new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) promise to transform urban governance into ‘Smart city governance’ and where ICTs are integrated in strategies for citizen participation and the co-production of public services and policy. This article provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of Smart city governance, including new insights around the opportunities for citizen engagement in the co-production of service-delivery and decision-making. Using findings from a review of Smart cities literature and practice, the article aims to establish the breadth of Smart city initiatives which emphasise citizen participation and the realities of delivering such initiatives in complex city environments. Emphasising the emerging role of the technologically ‘empowered’ citizen, a new conceptual model is presented, where mutual trust, shared understanding and new opportunities for co-production emerge in an environment mediated by new technology – this form of Smart governance is referred to here as ‘technologically-mediated municipal reciprocity’.
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