Towards a theory of e-participation:an actor-network theory (ANT) perspective

摘要

Participation in government activity is compulsory and is needed on one level or another for activities across multiple fields including politics, economics, education, health, planning and others. E-Participation is a growing area of research. It is dynamic, complex in both nature and execution and has multiple dimensions.The aim of this research is to better understand the role of technology in the participation processes available, focusing on the education and planning fields in the UK and Indonesia. The Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has been used as a theoretical lens through which to analyse the in-depth comparative case studies presented in the UK and Indonesia. Both countries are separated in different parts of the world, which may have both similarities and differences regarding their respective socio-cultural influences, politics, the economy, history and other contextual backgrounds. This cross comparison between a set of case studies with a different context provides the base from which to explore the participation processes and to capture any generic attributes that arise.The research includes a novel-structured literature review of 612 papers. Also included are four sizeable case studies that took around six months each involving field visits to Indonesia and similar field work in the UK.This research provides contributions, such as a suggested new method for exploring e-participation and a literature review, new models and definitions of e-participation that covers schools and planning which were not well covered in the previously existing literature. Finally, it will contribute a base theory of e-participation.