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The purpose of this paper is to research the key role of eParticipation and social media in the construction and diffusion of a European identity for European citizens, as a valuable means of acculturalisation, through the creation of a common sense of belonging and self-identifying with the European ideals.

The paper argues that the limited success of current EU institutions' communication strategy and eParticipation initiatives could be partly attributed to a communication gap between the means currently used on the one hand, and the preferences of targeted audiences on the other.

This communication gap is demonstrated by combining empirical data on EU eParticipation initiatives addressing young people, young citizens' involvement in EU affairs, the penetration of social media on young citizen groups and the social media presence of EU political entities.

These empirical data could be enriched with more detailed statistics, and monitored across time to identity advancements and changing trends.

The paper proposes, therefore, that the focus for eParticipation instruments be redirected to social media due to their comparative advantages as regards their great visibility, their notable level of penetration into current social groups and their potential of targeting specific audiences and becoming an integral part of these audiences' everyday life.

The paper believes this approach can contribute to improving eParticipation ventures in terms of their actual appeal to young citizens and contribution to the construction and diffusion of a European identity.

To identify the factors that influence adoption of e‐voting services by citizens between the ages of 18‐24.

This study uses Carter and Belanger's (2005) model of e‐government adoption to assess young voters' intention to use an online voting system. The study integrates constructs from technology acceptance, diffusion of innovation, and web trust models. A survey is administered to 208 young voters. The data is analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

Results indicate that user perceptions of compatibility, usefulness, and trust significantly impact their intention to use an electronic‐voting system. The model explains 76 percent of the variance in young voters' intention to use an e‐voting system.

The study only explores the perceptions of one age group. Future studies could use the model to access adoption perceptions of a more diverse pool of citizens.

Government agencies should emphasize the benefits of this electronic service to young voters. If marketed properly, the convenience and compatibility of e‐voting may be influential enough to motivate this normally apathetic demographic to participate in the election process.

This study explores adoption of internet voting by young citizens. An understanding of the factors that influence this demographics' intention to use e‐voting systems can be used to increase voter participation. The findings of this study also lay the foundation for future studies on e‐voting adoption.

The study intends to develop guidelines for the communication and marketing policy of Swiss tourism service providers aiming at targeting the future senior citizen market. It is of an exploratory nature, and based on interviews with current senior citizens in Switzerland and a Delphi study with 30 experts from the Swiss tourism and hospitality sector, as well as specialists from senior citizen associations and research institutes. The results show the importance of the increasing request by senior citizens for learning experience through holidays. The different marketing strategies aimed at such clientele will be increasingly profiled according to the specific motivation and preferences of this clientele.

This article aims to focus on how young physicians in general and different subpopulations, in particular, see the role of the welfare state. The author seeks to compare young physicians' opinions with those of older physicians, a similar age group in the general population and all physicians.

A random sample was picked from the Finnish Medical Association register (n=1,092). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results show that young physicians – when compared with an overall population of the same age, with physicians overall, or with older physicians – are more critical of the degree of social security currently offered. Young physicians also want to give more responsibility to the private sector than do older physicians. On the other hand, young physicians are not very critical of healthcare system functionality. All in all, young physicians' opinions about the welfare state are not particularly radical. Results indicate that physicians' opinions about the welfare state will not change dramatically in the near future. Views on social security, healthcare system functionality and the role of the private sector correlate best with political orientation.

There are some studies about physicians' attitudes towards the welfare state, but the opinions of young physicians have not been studied in countries with large social security systems. The paper addresses this gap because it is important to study young physicians' opinions because future services will be structured on them.

The purpose of this study is to look at what Urban Facilities Management (FM) and Green Leasing have in common and the degree to which they are ultimately reliant on one another. Whilst both are similar in terms of their placement in organizational management, Green Leasing is a building level concept whilst Urban FM is at the community level. The primary purpose of this paper is to show how the commonalities of both can strengthen one another and offer tangible possibilities to improve the sustainable credentials of urban development projects.

This study will be conducted with a mixed-methods approach. Firstly, a literature study will determine the commonalities between both concepts, and the degree to which they rely on one another to work effectively in projects. The second method will be a cross-sectional case study. Using existing cases that use both (either implicitly or explicitly), the study can demonstrate how these commonalities and reliabilities can offer tangible outputs to real work projects. These will then be combined in a case study to demonstrate many of these aspects in a real-world setting.

The finding demonstrates that there are commonalities between Green Leasing and Urban FM at all levels of organizational management and that the success of both requires holistic consideration of each other, as well as other aspects such as FM and citizen participation. The success and failure of projects are depending upon considering these aspects. By not considering the buildings and community levels as separation aspects, but more as different levels of the same project, multi-level considerations can contribute to the success of urban development projects.

The commonalities between Urban FM and Green Leasing are profound and do not just show the value of holistic thinking, but also the inclusion of other considerations such as FM to reduce project failure and long-term project viability. This can add value to the study of not just Urban FM and Green Leasing, but also FM more generally, architectural design and urban planning.

Citizens are substantial stakeholders in every e-government system, thus their willingness to use and ability to access the system are critical. Unequal access and information and communication technology usage, which is known as digital divide, however has been identified as one of the major obstacles to the implementation of e-government system. As digital divide inhibits citizen’s acceptance to e-government, it should be overcome despite the lack of deep theoretical understanding on this issue. This research aimed to investigate the digital divide and its direct impact on e-government system success of local governments in Indonesia as well as indirect impact through the mediation role of trust. In order to get a comprehensive understanding of digital divide, this study introduced a new type of digital divide, the innovativeness divide.

The research problems were approached by applying two-stage sequential mixed method research approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative studies. In the first phase, an initial research model was proposed based on a literature review. Semi-structured interview with 12 users of e-government systems was then conducted to explore and enhance this initial research model. Data collected in this phase were analyzed with a two-stage content analysis approach and the initial model was then amended based on the findings. As a result, a comprehensive research model with 16 hypotheses was proposed for examination in the second phase.

In the second phase, quantitative method was applied. A questionnaire was developed based on findings in the first phase. A pilot study was conducted to refine the questionnaire, which was then distributed in a national survey resulting in 237 useable responses. Data collected in this phase were analyzed using Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modeling.

The results of quantitative analysis confirmed 13 hypotheses. All direct influences of the variables of digital divide on e-government system success were supported. The mediating effects of trust in e-government in the relationship between capability divide and e-government system success as well as in the relationship between innovativeness divide and e-government system success were supported, but was rejected in the relationship between access divide and e-government system success. Furthermore, the results supported the moderating effects of demographic variables of age, residential place, and education.

This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. The study contributes to the developments of literature on digital divide and e-government by providing a more comprehensive framework, and also to the implementation of e-government by local governments and the improvement of e-government Readiness Index of Indonesia.

The uncompromising preference of citizens for public sector employment throughout the Middle East is not new. However, with the recent saturation of the public sector job market and demographic pressures, it has grown to become a problem of unpredictable economic and social consequences. This paper aims to explore the factors determining career choice behaviour and the underlying career expectations and perceptions of young citizens in one Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the preference for public sector employment is not only very strong, but is also perceived as increasingly problematic.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a total of 60 UAE citizens in the age group of 18‐23.

The authors explore and discuss cognitive, social, and institutional factors that influence the job‐seeking behaviour of young Emiratis and lead to negative attitudes towards the private sector. They further suggest potential causes of the very low private sector employment levels among UAE citizens and discuss their implications for policy makers. The authors argue for two main approaches: first, a focus on training and orientation of young citizens to enable them to confidently pursue job opportunities in the private sector. This may also include ways for providing young UAE citizens with private sector exposure, as 98 per cent of the national workforce is currently working in the public sector and a lot of what young UAE citizens think they know about the private sector is not founded in reality. Second, interventions to address structural and institutional challenges hindering employment of citizens including gaps in employment conditions and remuneration levels for citizens between the public and private employment sectors.

While much previous research in this field has focused on the perceptions of employers, this is the first paper to actually explore the perceptions of those at the centre of the discussion – young UAE citizens themselves.

The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive, study is to help us better understand how a small group of Hmong immigrant adolescents conceptualize their political and civic citizenship in the United States. Three focus groups including a total of 18 Hmong middle/junior high school adolescents were carried out in order to garner data. Upon data analysis and interpretation, it was determined that study participants consider rights and responsibilities important to citizenship in a democracy and participate in various social, political, academic, and environmental activities. Study participants emphasize the community good over personal self-interests. As Hmong culture tends to be more collectivist in nature, this value orientation may be incompatible with the curriculum, instruction, and philosophy that students experience in public schools: Hmong youth may experience educational disadvantage. Adolescents in this study are developing their conceptions of citizenship within a racialized, hierarchical society and they explained their experiences with racialization and how they understand white privilege.

Social media platforms are a pervasive technology that continues to define the modern world. While social media has brought many benefits to society in terms of connection and content sharing, numerous concerns remain for the governance of social media platforms going forward, including (but not limited to) the spread of misinformation, hate speech and online surveillance. However, the voice of citizens and other non-experts is often missing from such conversations in information systems literature, which has led to an alleged gap between research and the everyday life of citizens.

The authors address this gap by presenting findings from 16 h of online dialog with 25 citizens on social media platform governance. The online dialog was undertaken as part of a worldwide consultation project called “We, the internet”, which sought to provide citizens with a voice on a range of topics such as “Digitalization and Me,” “My Data, Your Data, Our Data” and “A Strong Digital Public Sphere.” Five phases of thematic analysis were undertaken by the authors to code the corpus of qualitative data.

Drawing on the Theory of Communicative Action, the authors discuss three dialogical processes critical to citizen discourse: lifeworld reasoning, rationalization and moral action. The findings point toward citizens’ perspectives of current and future issues associated with social media platform governance, including concerns around the multiplicity of digital identities, consent for vulnerable groups and transparency in content moderation. The findings also reveal citizens’ rationalization of the dilemmas faced in addressing these issues going forward, including tensions such as digital accountability vs data privacy, protection vs inclusion and algorithmic censorship vs free speech.

Based on outcomes from this dialogical process, moral actions in the form of policy recommendations are proposed by citizens and for citizens. The authors find that tackling these dark sides of digitalization is something too important to be left to “Big Tech” and equally requires an understanding of citizens’ perspectives to ensure an informed and positive imprint for change.