Exploring the importance of citizen participation and involvement in e‐government projects: Practice, incentives, and organization
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
ISSN: 1750-6166
Article publication date: 12 October 2010
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate if, and in that case, how and what the e‐government field can learn from user participation concepts and theories in general information systems (IS) research. It aims to contribute with further understanding of the importance of citizen participation and involvement within the e‐government research body of knowledge and when developing public e‐services in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis in the paper is made from a comparative, qualitative case study of two e‐government projects. Three analysis themes are induced from the literature review; practice of participation, incentives for participation, and organization of participation. These themes are guiding the comparative analysis of our data with a concurrent openness to interpretations from the field.
Findings
The main results in this paper are that the e‐government field can get inspiration and learn from methods and approaches in traditional IS projects concerning user participation, but in e‐government, methods are also needed to handle the challenges that arise when designing public e‐services for large, heterogeneous user groups. Citizen engagement cannot be seen as a separate challenge in e‐government, but rather as an integrated part of the process of organizing, managing, and performing e‐government projects. Analysis themes of participation generated from literature; practice, incentives and organization can be used in order to highlight, analyze, and discuss main issues regarding the challenges of citizen participation within e‐government. This is an important implication based on this paper that contributes both to theory on and practice of e‐government.
Practical implications
Lessons to learn from this paper concern that many e‐government projects have a public e‐service as one outcome and an internal e‐administration system as another outcome. A dominating internal, agency perspective in such projects might imply that citizens as the user group of the e‐service are only seen as passive receivers of the outcome – not as active participants in the development. By applying the analysis themes, proposed in this paper, citizens as active participants can be thoroughly discussed when initiating (or evaluating) an e‐government project.
Originality/value
The paper addresses challenges regarding citizen participation in e‐government development projects. User participation is well researched within the IS discipline, but the e‐government setting implies new challenges that are not explored enough.
Keywords
Citation
Axelsson, K., Melin, U. and Lindgren, I. (2010), "Exploring the importance of citizen participation and involvement in e‐government projects: Practice, incentives, and organization", Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 299-321. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506161011081309
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited