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Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Johann Schutte

A research project exploring emerging student needs explored six aspects of student life: living, learning, working, playing, connecting and participating. Participating is…

Abstract

Purpose

A research project exploring emerging student needs explored six aspects of student life: living, learning, working, playing, connecting and participating. Participating is explored here. This aspect focuses on the ways that students may become active citizens by participating in civic life. Insights are gained as to how students may engage with universities and governments and how they will contribute to the public sphere. Themes such as voting, (h)activism, transparency and digital strategies to improve governance are explored. This paper aims to summarize two scenarios about the Participating domain from the Student Needs 2025+ project and highlight implications for the future of higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

A modified version of the University of Houston’s “Framework Foresight” method was used to explore the future of six aspects of future student life.

Findings

The ability of students and citizens to innovate and affect change should not be underestimated. The maker movement and the “life hacking” meme are symbols of the hidden societal energy available to governments to improve the world and solve our pressing issues. For this to be effective, the role of the hacker, and hacktivism in general as a form of civic participation, should be reframed as a positive contributor of change. The relationship between governing bodies and activism is at a crossroads. The current age of interconnectivity offers tremendous potential for governing bodies to include civil contributions and innovation in a powerful, net-positive way. However, the status quo is so often the opposite and those who are being governed are perceived as a threat. There is a need for key players and leaders to creatively act according to innovative paradigms and principles that strategically reconcile the hacked and the hacking for the greater good of society.

Research limitations/implications

In terms of research limitations, the paper is focused on the needs of students and does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis of all of the issues influencing higher education. It views the future of higher education through the lens of students and their emerging needs.

Originality/value

This paper explores student life in its totality as a way to more accurately identify student needs in the future.

Details

On the Horizon, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Sung-Yueh Perng

Smart city developments have been subjected to technocratic envisioning and neoliberal urban developments. However, there have been attempts to reclaim the right to the city…

Abstract

Smart city developments have been subjected to technocratic envisioning and neoliberal urban developments. However, there have been attempts to reclaim the right to the city through organizing civic initiatives to widen the access to the making of future technologies and cities. This chapter draws on Mouffe’s concept of agonistic relations to explore the diversifying ideals, rhetoric, and practices of hackathon organization to consider how they might cooperate with or contest one another and provide alternative means to technology and city making. The chapter analyzes different ways of organizing hackathons and discusses the opportunities for participants with diverse social backgrounds, knowledges and technical competences to join and work together. By examining the conflictual positions, articulations, and arrangements to widen participation, the chapter suggests that more open, inclusive, and collaborative city-making events might be possible. Further work is needed to examine conflictual hackathon participation practices and other civic initiatives to pursue a more egalitarian smart city.

Details

The Right to the Smart City
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-140-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Andrew R. Schrock

Over the last decade, engineers, designers, community organizers, and government employees have rallied around “civic tech.” What exactly does this term mean for urban…

Abstract

Over the last decade, engineers, designers, community organizers, and government employees have rallied around “civic tech.” What exactly does this term mean for urban technologists and “smart cities”? In formulating a definition, after describing the relationship of this term to the city, I examine how civic tech has been defined by practitioners. They have typically defined civic tech using umbrella definitions based on broad values and bucket definitions based on technologies. Although helpful, these definitions tend to obfuscate the political nature of civic tech’s practices and organizational techniques. In response, I suggest civic tech is a form of “technical pluralism” – iterative technology design and implementation among organized actors working toward predominantly administrative reforms. Because practitioners are inspired by redesigning systems of governance and redistributing power, civic tech’s most important provocations are organizational and political, rather than purely technological. Civic tech, as a form of technical pluralism, presents a route to bridging community and government in the pursuit of more equitable ways to achieve sustainable technology design in urban contexts.

Details

The Right to the Smart City
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-140-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Michiel de Lange

The current datafication of cities raises questions about what Lefebvre and many after him have called “the right to the city.” In this contribution, I investigate how the use of…

Abstract

The current datafication of cities raises questions about what Lefebvre and many after him have called “the right to the city.” In this contribution, I investigate how the use of data for civic purposes may strengthen the “right to the datafied city,” that is, the degree to which different people engage and participate in shaping urban life and culture, and experience a sense of ownership. The notion of the commons acts as the prism to see how data may serve to foster this participatory “smart citizenship” around collective issues. This contribution critically engages with recent attempts to theorize the city as a commons. Instead of seeing the city as a whole as a commons, it proposes a more fine-grained perspective of the “commons-as-interface.” The “commons-as-interface,” it is argued, productively connects urban data to the human-level political agency implied by “the right to the city” through processes of translation and collectivization. The term is applied to three short case studies, to analyze how these processes engender a “right to the datafied city.” The contribution ends by considering the connections between two seemingly opposed discourses about the role of data in the smart city – the cybernetic view versus a humanist view. It is suggested that the commons-as-interface allows for more detailed investigations of mediation processes between data, human actors, and urban issues.

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Alberto Vanolo

Over the last few years, technological developments have allowed new possibilities for fostering civic participation and engagement, as testified by various smart city…

Abstract

Over the last few years, technological developments have allowed new possibilities for fostering civic participation and engagement, as testified by various smart city experiments. In this framework, game elements are diffusely mobilized in order to develop responsible and active citizens with the aim of tackling urban problems. Gamification may be effective in nudging citizens and promoting various forms of participation, but fundamental ethical and political questions have to be addressed. This chapter develops the argument by interpreting gamification in light of the classic conceptualization of social justice proposed by David Harvey, arguing that participation through gamification potentially implies critical elements of injustice.

Details

The Right to the Smart City
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-140-7

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Abstract

Details

The Right to the Smart City
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-140-7

Article
Publication date: 10 June 2020

Maxat Kassen

The peer-to-peer perspective on open data is an interesting topic to research, taking into account that data-driven innovations and related startups are often developed…

Abstract

Purpose

The peer-to-peer perspective on open data is an interesting topic to research, taking into account that data-driven innovations and related startups are often developed independently by civic and private stakeholders in a highly collaborative manner and are tentatively beginning to directly compete with traditional e-government solutions, providing arguably better services to citizens and businesses. In this regard, the paper aims to further debate on the potential of such independent data-driven collaboration not only to transform the traditional mechanisms of public sector innovations but also provide more democratic ways to ensure greater transparency of government and its responsibility before the society.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is based on a cross-country case study, resorting to the content analysis of three demonstrative cases in the development of open data-driven projects, which specifically promote peer-to-peer communication between its stakeholders. In this regard, the case study itself relies heavily on the analysis of rich empirical data that the author collected during his field studies in the Northern European region in 2015–2017, particularly in Estonia, Finland and Sweden. The practical research itself consists of three major parts, which reflect peer-to-peer perspectives of correspondingly civic, public and private stakeholders through manifested examples of related independent projects in the area.

Findings

The paper's results demonstrate that the use of peer-to-peer mechanisms in advancing related public sector reforms allows to transform the traditional understanding of e-government phenomena in a conceptually new way. E-government or its last more political interpretation – from the perspective of its peers could be regarded not necessarily as a platform to provide digital public services but as a source of raw material for various third party projects in, respectively, civic, government and business peer-to-peer dimensions of such reforms. As a result, open data provides an interesting playground to change the very nature of public sector innovations in the area.

Research limitations/implications

The choice of countries for research was motivated by purposive and convenience sampling because all these countries are situated in one region, have both similarities and differences in historical, political and socioeconomic backgrounds and, therefore, provide an ideal playground to investigate open data as a context dependable phenomenon. In this regard, the unique political and socioeconomic contexts of these countries provide an interesting playground to debate on the potential of social democracy, egalitarian society and social equality, i.e. public values that are deeply embedded into the fabric of societies there, to benefit the open data movement in a fundamental manner.

Practical implications

This paper reports on unique practical approaches for peer-to-peer collaboration and cooperation in advancing open data-driven platforms among stakeholders. The results of the case studies in three Nordic countries, which are currently among global leaders in advancing the concept of open government, are presented in an intrinsically illustrative manner, which could help practitioners and policymakers to understand better the potential of such a peer-to-peer perspective on open data. In this regard, the models proposed, of citizen-to-citizen, business-to-business, government-to-government interactions, could be interesting to a wide audience of e-government stakeholders in many nations.

Social implications

The paper also enters into philosophical debates about societal implications of digital peer-to-peer data-driven communication among people. Recent efforts to digitize almost every part of social life, starting from popularization of solutions for distant work and ending to online access to various public services, incentivize individual members of civil society to communicate in an inherently peer-to-peer way. This fact will definitely increase the demand for related digital services. Social distancing in a digital context will allow to paradoxically emancipate technically savvy and entrepreneurial people in creating new services, including using open data, which could meet the demand.

Originality/value

The research is intrinsically of an empirical character because recent e-government reforms in the public sector in many countries, including in the open data area, provide rich practical knowledge to test the limits of new technologies to advance society in socioeconomic and, more importantly, political development. In this regard, this paper provides the first research in analyzing open data from a unique peer-to-peer perspective with an ultimate goal of the whole investigation to draw the attention of other e-government scholars and initiate debates on the collaborative nature of the phenomena to empower civil society and ensure transparency of government.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 72 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 December 2015

Abstract

Details

Communication and Information Technologies Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-381-5

Article
Publication date: 10 April 2019

Juliane Jarke

The purpose of this paper is to review interventions/methods for engaging older adults in meaningful digital public service design by enabling them to engage critically and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review interventions/methods for engaging older adults in meaningful digital public service design by enabling them to engage critically and productively with open data and civic tech.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper evaluates data walks as a method for engaging non-tech-savvy citizens in co-design work. These were evaluated along a framework considering how such interventions allow for sharing control (e.g. over design decisions), sharing expertise and enabling change.

Findings

Within a co-creation project, different types of data walks may be conducted, including ideation walks, data co-creation walks or user test walks. These complement each other with respect to how they facilitate the sharing of control and expertise, and enable change for a variety of older citizens.

Practical implications

Data walks are a method with a low-threshold, potentially enabling a variety of citizens to engage in co-design activities relating to open government and civic tech.

Social implications

Such methods address the digital divide and further social participation of non-tech-savvy citizens. They value the resources and expertise of older adults as co-designers and partners, and counter stereotypical ideas about age and ageing.

Originality/value

This pilot study demonstrates how data walks can be incorporated into larger co-creation projects.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 43 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 March 2017

Evgeny Styrin, Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes and Teresa M. Harrison

In this paper, the authors compare the open government data (OGD) ecosystems of Mexico, Russia and the USA in an effort to extract some of the major points of similarity and…

2056

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the authors compare the open government data (OGD) ecosystems of Mexico, Russia and the USA in an effort to extract some of the major points of similarity and differentiation between these countries and to trace how variations in these ecosystems may be related to context-specific historical problems and politics, particularly with regard to the possibility of sustained and institutionalized practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors take a comparative approach, using a set of concepts commonly applied to the three countries to analyze similarities and differences within this group. The authors gathered textual data and information, the searches for relevant documents guided by a set of concepts or criteria that are frequently used in studies of government’s open data readiness assessment.

Findings

The authors conclude by focusing on the very different national exigencies that have given rise to open data ecosystems in the three countries, the variations in policy vehicles and implementation schemes that have instantiated open data practices within the three ecosystems and the common challenges that each country faces in institutionalizing OGD programs beyond the tenures of their current executives.

Originality/value

OGD is an information policy with near global relevance and increasing application. Practitioners and scholars alike have used the concept of an “ecosystem” to guide their approach to implementing this policy and to theorizing its scope and benefits. The international comparison is original and adds to the current understanding of an ecosystem approach to OGD.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

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