Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Electronic Governance

 

Special Issue on: "Pervasive Participation – New Horizons for Technology-Mediated Citizen Involvement"

Guest Editors:
Sarah-Kristin Thiel and Peter Fröhlich, Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
Malgorzata Goraczek, Donau-Universität Krems, Austria
Matthias Baldauf, FHS St.Gallen – University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Titiana Petra Ertiö and Sampo Ruoppila, University of Turku, Finland

Researchers and practitioners around the world are currently exploring novel participation methods with the objective to better integrate citizens in public decision-making processes. By using contemporary technology, they aim not only to lower traditional participation barriers, but also to broaden the scope of involved citizens by trying to encourage those previously less eager to participate, such as younger generations. Particularly in urban planning, the penetration of mobile and wearable devices, with their manifold features to interact with real-world surroundings, as well as public screens or technically enriched artefacts embedded in urban surroundings provide new opportunities to collect citizen input directly on site and on the go.

This special issue will explore the concept of pervasive participation, which exploits the latest pervasive technologies such as feature-rich smart devices, wearables and sensor-equipped smart urban environments to enable novel forms of efficient and sustainable citizen involvement. Realising pervasive participation is an interdisciplinary effort and poses myriad challenges and opportunities in both technical, societal and legal terms. For example, fundamental issues involve questions of user acceptance and experience and the impact on traditional governmental decision-making processes.

This special issue seeks to attract and publish a diverse array of empirical, theoretical and critical contributions regarding pervasive participation to contribute to a better understanding of its complexity and interdisciplinary nature. The objective of the issue is to provide a timely collection of rigorous research on the design, use, integration and evaluation of pervasive participation methods and technologies.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Evaluation of pervasive participation prototypes (e.g. experiences from planning and conducting; accounts of user studies and living labs)
• Methods for evaluating novel pervasive forms of citizen e-participation or assessing their impact and success (e.g. based on key indicators)
• Novel pervasive participation user interfaces (e.g. mobile, wearable) and concepts (e.g. hybrid, blended participation)
• Application of recent ICT trends such as the Internet of Things and open data for novel forms of citizen participation
• New and blended forms of pervasive participation (e.g. innovation, co-production, learning environments, crowd-funding)
• Activation, inclusiveness and diversity in pervasive participation environments (e.g. by utilising gamification and persuasion concepts)
• Technical and/or legal integration of pervasive participation in (traditional) decision-making processes
• Legal limitations and pre-requirements as foundations for new pervasive participation forms, as well as potential conflicts (e.g. arising from transparency and traceability)

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

If you have any queries concerning this special issue, please email the Guest Editors at perpart@tech-experience.at.

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 31 January, 2018

Notification to authors: 15 April, 2018

Final versions due: 15 June, 2018