Francesco Molinari 06-05-11

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Francesco Molinari,[email protected]

Institutionalising eParticipation

CeDEM11, Krems (Austria), 5-6May 2011


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Contents Stating the challenge: how to take stock of the

eParticipation Preparatory Action results in anintelligent way

What do I mean by institutionalising

Literature review A couple of (live) examples Why and How institutionalise eParticipation (in

Europe) Whose task is this for me Where do we stand now How could we make a reasonable step ahead The role of this (small) community in this (very) small

world

Comments from the audience (hopefully if any) Additional references to those in the paper

Krems, 6-05-20112 Francesco Molinari


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The eParticipation Preparatory ActionAchievements 2007-2010 Moreover

Krems, 6-05-2011Francesco Molinari3

In a nutshell 30 pilot sites

18 EU Member States 100,000 citizens engaged 50 public sector entities 70 MEPs

Source: Chrissafis & Rohen2010

Investment 20 Mio. (approx.) 200 per citizen engaged

Social impact 3,300 citizens per pilot 2,000 per public sector entity

1,400 per MEP

Economic impact An embryo market

created/trialled for someleading technologies

Research impact A nascent socio-technical

discipline

Policy impact

Indeterminate!


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Spelling the challenge out


My papers conclusions: After the wave of demonstration projects funded

under the Preparatory Action on eParticipation, it isimportant to take one step forward by taking stock

of the positive and getting rid of the negativeoutcomes, to avoid reinventing the wheel every timeand to channel (presumably decreasing) resourcestowards future initiatives that really make a

difference and have long term impact Normative approach indeed, but with a lot of

possible implications for theorists, as I will try todemonstrate shortly


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Institutionalisation Definition

(Wikipedia 2011): the process of embedding something

(for example a concept, a social role, a particular valueor mode of behaviour) within an organisation, social

system, or society as a whole Within the eParticipation community, the word

embedding has been floating around since the

pathbreaking studies of Ann Macintosh in the early2000s

A (sort of) Action Research concept Research

Molinari (2010) relates it to Sustainability Colombo et al. (2011), Molinari et al. (2012) to BPR in the PA

Action: see examples Krems, 6-05-20115 Francesco Molinari


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PARTERRE (www.parterre-project.eu)


Six pilots in 5 EU Countries Tools adopted:

DEMOS-Plan for stakeholder involvement in planningconsultations that are mandatory for a PA

The Electronic Town Meeting (imported from US to Italy in late

2000s) as a good compromise between the high figures andthe working outcomes of deliberative democracy

Drivers of institutionalisation here: Legislative framework

Urban Planning Strategic Environmental Assessment (the 2001/42/ECDirective) Digitisation of Public Participation (the Aarhus Directive,

2003/35/EC) Business models

Do more with less (particularly in this time of crisis)


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PERIPHRIA(www.peripheria.eu)



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Back to research for a while,sorry Four concepts (drivers) are relevant forinstitutionalisation

Stability (over time) Berger & Luckmann (1967): creation of stable meanings within

peers Curry (1992): organisational change Aichholzer et al. (2008): end of one-off experiments of

eParticipation Leadership

creates a favourable cultural climate and aligns the internalvalues and norms to the innovation rules and requirements(Curry 1992)

Value If its not worth, nobody will buy change - Selznick (1957) Need for cultural structuration of the eParticipation potential for

policy making Diffusion

Outside the organisation (Scott 1995) In the broader community, governance system, at the differentKrems, 6-05-20118 Francesco Molinari


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Why and How institutionaliseeParticipation (A small window on the Where: in the old Europe at

least) What about the rest of the world? (e.g. MDG, US, Latin

America ) See www.vitalizing-democracy.org

Big room for comparative research here That could become the stigma of a truly European socio-

political model Integrating the rule of law with social innovation and

organisational efficiency Living Labs for eGovernance (largely unexplored field; call for support) The East-West integration or democratic realignment issue

A possible way forward requires: Assess from a neutral perspective what is the experience that

we can capitalise Clarify whose task is supposed to be this one and how could

(s)he move on Krems, 6-05-20119 Francesco Molinari


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Malmoe Declaration, 2009

Krems, 6-05-2011Francesco Molinari

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Coordinate ongoing and future EuropeaneGovernment projects so they align with theforthcoming action plan in order to facilitatesharing and avoiding unnecessary duplication of

work.

Solutions to assure the sustainability of pilotsand actions under these projects and

programmes should be explored.

The coordination of activities should take intoaccount the specificities of different Member

States.


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Where do we stand now?


Unfortunately, in the eGovernment Action Plan2011-2015, there are no indications on how toreconcile these three priorities in the domain ofeParticipation

The Action Plan does not even mention theresults of the eParticipation Preparatory Action :-o

However, the concept of what we calleParticipation is used at least once, in direct

connection with the important (architrave) notionof User Empowerment

Which is not that bad at all


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My idea of a two-prongedstrategy

Scaling up Institutional change


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Aim: to enforce andstimulate the potential

of the nascent marketfor eParticipationsolutions in Europe Instrument: Migrate

from one-off smallpilot projects to citylevel, regional andnationwide services

Aim: to embedeParticipation like a

permanent add-on inthe current setup ofpublic decision-making processes Instrument: Explore

and assess theconditions that makeeParticipation

sustainable


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Some implementation actions


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ePractice.eu should become more a repository of best practice and a

source of intelligent benchmarking of European experiences alsocompared to international evidence available

We need an Observatory of European eDemocracy Trends Evaluating the reuse potential of the major ICT solutions and tools developed

and trialled so far

Streamlining evidence-based reform guidelines at City, Regional and Nationallevel Exploring coherence and scope for integration of eParticipation within national

(e.g. youth or immigration) policies Grounding future assessment of the Member States performance by a set of

instruments (official statistics, activity indicators, implementation records) on asystematic basis

We also need a pan-European eDemocracy Forum As a permanent technology showcase: Compare

http://www.eastin.info/home.aspx?ln=en&pg=keynote Promoting use of state-of-the-art ICT solutions for permanent and/or ad hoc

consultation on selected issues Gathering academic experts, solution providers, practitioner networks (e.g.

PEP-NET) and stakeholder communities (e.g. associations of EU Regions)


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Call for chapters I am putting together a writing community on

these issues Both researchers and practitioners are well

accepted There will be a Book edited by a professional

company I will arrange for a classical review process

Please contact me later if you like the idea

Krems, 6-05-201114 Francesco Molinari


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References


See the paper for most of them Additional references not quoted there:

Molinari F., Kunstelj M., and Todorovski L. (2012):Stepwise eParticipation: Good Practice from the

Regional level in Europe, forthcoming chapter inManoharan A. & Holzer M. (Eds.), E-Governanceand Civic Engagement: Factors and Determinantsof E-Democracy, IGI Global Publishing Co.

Colombo C., Kunstelj M., Molinari F., and

Todorovski L. (2011): Workflow Modeling forParticipatory Policy Design: Lessons Learned fromThree European Regions, in Journal of Balkan andNear Eastern Studies, 13:1, pp. 117-139.

Wikipedia (2011): Institutionalisation

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