JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem <p>The eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM) is a Q2 Open Access e-journal offering a rigorous double-blind peer-review. Submitting to and publishing in JeDEM is free (no processing charges or APCs).</p> <p>The journal aims to bridge innovative, insightful and stimulating research, testing and findings with practice and the work conducted by governments, NPOs, NGOs and professionals. JeDEM encourages articles which come from different disciplines or adopt an interdisciplinary approach, including eVoting, ePolitics, eSociety, business IT, applied computer gaming and simulation, cyberpsychology, usability, decision sciences, marketing, economics, psychology, sociology, media studies, communication studies, political science, philosophy, law, policy, legislation, and ethics. JeDEM provides up-to-date articles with ideas to be discussed, used and implemented while also being a knowledge repository. We encourage a diversity of methods and theoretical lenses, including critical studies in these thematic fields.</p> <p>We publish theoretical, practical and empirical research in research papers, invited papers, project descriptions and reflections. Authors can submit to JeDEM as a response to a special issue call for papers or as an ongoing submission. For publication sections and their policies and indexing information, see the section <a title="About the Journal" href="https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/about" target="_self">About the Journal</a>.</p> <p><strong>What are the main benefits of publishing with JeDEM?</strong></p> <ul> <li class="show">Our journal is truly open access: Publishing and reading is free of charge.</li> <li class="show">JeDEM publishes a variety of publications: ongoing and completed research articles are selected after a rigorous blind peer review by experts in the field. We also publish reflections and project descriptions.</li> <li class="show">JeDEM is indexed with <a href="https://www.ebsco.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EBSCO</a>, <a href="https://doaj.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOAJ</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Scholar</a>, <a href="https://www.scopus.com/search/form.uri?display=basic">Scopus, </a> <a href="https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21100939681&amp;tip=sid&amp;clean=0">Scimago</a> and the <a href="https://pkp.sfu.ca/ohs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Public Knowledge Project metadata harvester</a>. Each article is identified with a <a href="https://www.doi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOI (Digital Object Identifier). </a></li> <li class="show">Due to the online publishing format, our publication process is comparably quicker than the one of traditional journals.</li> <li class="show">Papers published as articles that are not peer-reviewed can be extended and re-used for further publication, e.g. as regular peer-reviewed journal articles.</li> </ul> Department for E-Governance and Administration en-US JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government 2075-9517 <p><strong><img src="https://jedem.org/public/site/images/csemiczky/cc_by2.png" /><br />JeDEM</strong> is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (ISSN: 2075-9517). All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International</a></p> Editorial 16(2) https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/982 Andrea Chapman Copyright (c) 2024 Andrea Chapman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-11-13 2024-11-13 16 2 i ii 10.29379/jedem.v16i2.982 Frontline workers’ role in digital self-service co-production: Channel promoters, digital helpers, or intermediators https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/919 <p>When public services move online, citizens are expected to serve themselves on digital platforms and enrol in public services through self-service procedures. In this digital encounter, many citizens struggle to live up to the “self” in self-services and seek in-person assistance from public professionals. These professional actors play an essential role in enabling the co-production of self-services for citizens who struggle to be truly self-serving. This article explores the frontline workers’ roles in self-service co-production when interacting with citizens seeking help in the service procedures. Service interactions have been studied in two meeting centres of the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration. We have conducted observations of office interactions in general and at digital self-service stations in particular. Interviews with public officials have complemented these observations. We use intermediation and co-production theory as analytical lenses in our data analysis. The findings show that the role of frontline workers can be both flexible and narrow in nature and that they take on the role of intermediaries when acting as a bridge between the analogue world and the digital domain. We also see that the intermediating role frontline workers take will vary and is influenced by organisational, personal, and external circumstances that can enable or restrain the co-production of self-services.</p> Hanne Höglund Rydén Sara Hofmann Copyright (c) 2024 Hanne Höglund Rydén, Sara Hofmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-11-13 2024-11-13 16 2 1 27 10.29379/jedem.v16i2.919 Looking beyond “the tool itself”: Towards a political systems understanding of e-participation https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/915 <p>In this paper, we argue that e-participation research is at a crossroads as its theories and empirical scope are increasingly detached from the contemporary relationship between information technology and political participation. We illustrate this challenge through two developments: (1) the dissolving boundaries between online and offline spheres of political participation and (2) the growing dissociation between ICTs and democracy. In light of these developments, we present a potential path forward for the field, inspired by the so-called "systemic turn" in research on deliberative democracy and democratic innovations. We argue for a perspective that emphasises the relationship between e-participation and the political system in which it is enacted. This allows us, in our conclusion, In our conclusion, this allows us to present alternative potential directions for future research within the field.</p> Martin Karlsson Magnus Adenskog Copyright (c) 2024 Martin Karlsson, Magnus Adenskog https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-11-13 2024-11-13 16 2 28 48 10.29379/jedem.v16i2.915 Between continuity and change: A longitudinal analysis of Swedish local government digitalization strategies https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/914 <p>The terminology associated with the use of information and communication technologies in the public sector has shifted over time, from information technology to digitalization. This change raises the question of whether corresponding shifts in government practices have accompanied it. To investigate this issue, we use topic modeling to analyze a corpus of IT- and digitalization strategies from Swedish local governments, produced over three decades. Our analysis reveals salient topics covered in these strategies and classifies them, displaying patterns of both continuity and change. Some of these patterns reflect dominant discourses about technological governance and the provision of digital services based on citizens’ needs, but there is also a notable absence of content related to democracy and participatory practices. Taken together, our study contributes empirically with an evolutionary perspective on digital government strategies and methodologically with the adoption of computational methods for this purpose.</p> Aya Rizk Leif Sundberg Marcus Heidlund Daniel Toll Copyright (c) 2024 Aya Rizk, Leif Sundberg, Marcus Heidlund, Daniel Toll https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-11-13 2024-11-13 16 2 49 73 10.29379/jedem.v16i2.914 Dynamic capabilities in the public sector: Research agenda in the context of digital transformation https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/883 <p>Dynamic capabilities, which were initially developed for the private sector but have increasingly been applied to public sector organizations, can be used to frame the analysis of digital transformation. This article considers the research agenda on the capabilities enabling public sector organizations to implement digital transformation, manage multi-stakeholder collaborations, and improve service delivery in a changing environment. There are five emerging areas of dynamic capabilities in the public sector: conceptual discussion, management and performance, measurement frameworks, innovation and public value creation, and digital transformation. Future research agendas should focus on understanding multiple actors involved in the digital transition, and longitudinal and comparative studies.</p> Larissa Galdino de Magalhães Santos Copyright (c) 2024 Larissa Galdino de Magalhães Santos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-11-13 2024-11-13 16 2 74 87 10.29379/jedem.v16i2.883