Social Inclusion and OmbudsOffice Websites in Canada

The Internet and digital technology provide great potential for public sector organizations to broaden their scope of social inclusion and thereby better serve the populace. This is especially the case of the Ombudsman institution that exists to provide the public with an independent mechanism through which members of the public may seek redress of grievances of alleged administrative wrongdoings. However has the potential of what has been a reality in Canada been realized? This chapter takes a user's approach to depict what users find when they go online to lodge complaints with OmbudsOffices, both federally and provincially in Canada. For the most part, Canadian OmbudsOffices have been relatively conservative by placing online information that is also found in printed format.

E-Government in the OECD

The literature on electronic government (e-government) often assumes that there exists one suitable model that can be adopted in all contexts. This chapter emphasizes the constitutive role of political and institutional context in the design, implementation, and impacts of e-government initiatives, the understanding of which require a geographically-specific analysis. It begins with a summary of various styles of e-government, including differing models and stages of implementation. Second, it offers empirical synopses of how e-government varies among and within OECD countries, emphasizing that the impacts are always culturally and politically mediated. Third, it points to the role of the digital divide in shaping citizen access to e-government, re-enforcing existing social inequalities and enhancing the access of already information-privileged groups to the levers of state power.

Local Government as a Democracy Actor or a Service Delivery Actor

Local governance occurs where a local government gives citizens a say in things that really matter to them, and e-governance initiatives provide electronic means to enable citizens to participate in this shared governing of the community. The clearer a local government is about the nature and degree to which it needs to act as a democracy actor (better citizens and better government) and/or a service delivery actor (better decision making), the greater the prospect that it can choose appropriate electronic means through an e-governance approach to meet those ends. In order to guide an e-governance practice and inform further research, this chapter: provides models that articulate the elements that constitute better decision making, better citizens, and better government, and presents examples from five local governments of how electronic means can satisfy particular ends.

ICT

This analyzes how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be used by governments to involve all citizens in society life through increased access to education, employment, public services, as well as participating in decision-making. Given the risks of deeper social exclusion associated with the lack of digital competences or capabilities, targeted measures to encourage ICT engagement may strategically be implemented to provide equal opportunities. Furthermore, digital technologies open up new communication channels that governments can use to deliver valuable citizen-oriented public services and foster social and political involvement. In order to reach inclusiveness and participation objectives, technology is obviously not enough. Some commitment to openness and transparency, as well as an effective assessment of policy outcomes range among the pillars of a successful approach to digital governance.

To Participation and Beyond?

This chapter provides a case study of local developments in e-democracy in the city of Bristol, UK. Although some of these developments relate to periodic local elections, most are concerned with supporting new forms of engagement between local citizens and local government institutions and processes in the times between these. Starting with the coordination of its own consultation activities, then encouraging greater participation in council-run activities, and finally supporting grass roots engagement activities, Bristol City Council embarked on a local program of e-democracy activities from 2000 onwards. This grew into a national pilot scheme that enabled a number of valuable comparative evaluations of e-democracy in practice. The chapter draws on the results of a number of evaluations of these local and national developments and highlights the more widespread and enduring challenges of trying to broaden the scope and the effectiveness of local democracy and improve the practices of social inclusion.

Technological Features and the Structuring of Political Participation

This chapter develops a theoretical lens based on the structurational perspective of technology for the analysis and investigation of such social aspects in e-Governance as social inclusion. After presenting a brief description of the research context and motivations in the introductory section, it continues with presenting the epistemological approach of interpretivism that the structurational perspective employs and the central tenets of Structuration Theory. Subsequently, it identifies the major dimensions of the context of social inclusion and construes them by using ideas and concepts from Structuration Theory. The chapter closes with some implications for research on social inclusion in e-Governance and the concluding remarks of the work.

Different Divisions

Addressing the problem of the digital divide is not, per se, a matter for e-government policy. Nonetheless, the existence of such a divide within society has a number of implications for such policy. E-government policy can also be an exemplar and/or act as a catalyst for actions in other public and private spheres. In this chapter, a five-way classification of the digital divide is proposed and the implications of each of these different forms of divide are examined. This taxonomy is then used to explore how e-government policy and practice need to be adapted to deal with the problems such a divide presents.

E-Government and Social Inclusion

E-Government is a relatively new phenomenon in much of the world, having been put in place in the 2000s. Thus, it is not a settled concept but an evolving one. Social Inclusion, although still a very contested concept, has been around for considerable time, but even that needs to be updated to suit the digital world in which it is being applied in this book. The authors in the first section of this book deal with these and associated concepts, and this chapter provides an overview of selected ideas as a primer for the chapters that follow.

Social Inclusion of Australian Children in the Digital Age

This chapter presents evidence on the access to the Internet for Australian children aged 5-15 years at a small area level, based mainly on the 2006 census data. It shows that there are areas of Australia, particularly in regional Australia, that have relatively low proportions of children who have access to the Internet at home. The geographical distribution of these areas is correlated with risk of social exclusion as measured by Child Social Exclusion Index. There was also a positive correlation between the proportion of children in an area with access to the Internet at home and average educational outcomes. The chapter concludes that there is some evidence of a digital divide for Australian children based on location of residence and socio-economic factors, which may have significant implications for children's ability to participate in society both now and in the future, and this requires further research.

Democratic Potentials of UN Climate Change Conference Host Government Websites

E-government discourse implicates state-produced Websites to enable opportunities and citizen spaces on policy issues, subject to demands to be inclusive, engaging, and free from commercial interests. Policy-making for a global issue like climate change takes place at the inter-governmental United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC). It becomes critical to examine if and how the governments hosting this restrictive global policy-making space may engage citizens through their online presence—host country conference outreach Websites. The chapter explores relational underpinnings between states and citizens in such Websites by examining the values privileged by designers using mixed methods. Among UNCCC Websites from 2007 to 2009, the Danish government Website's enhanced features may have contributed to potential inclusivity for the inter-governmental process online compared to previous government's efforts. However, findings have shown such interactive Website's inherent design aspects may potentially shape the manner that climate conversations are limited in an assumed democratized space online.