Designing and Implementing E-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India: Actors, Behaviours, Influences, And Fields of Play

8/20/2019 Designing and Implementing E-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India: Actors, Behaviours…

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Promoting Social Changeand Democracy throughInformation Technology

Vikas KumarAsia-Pacific Institute of Management, India

Jakob SvenssonUppsala University, Sweden

A volume in the Advances in Electronic

Government, Digital Divide, and Regional

Development (AEGDDRD) Book Series


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Detailed Table of Contents

Preface .................................................................................................................................................xiii

Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................................. xx

Section 1Theoretical Perspectives on ICTs and Social Change

Chapter 1

The Pamphlet Meets API An Overview of Social Movements in the Age of Digital Media ................. 1

Emily Stacey, Swansea University, Wales

This chapter explores traditional social movement theory and attempts to modernize and explain

contemporary movements with consideration of the digital tools being utilized by citizens on the ground.

The ability to transcend borders and traditional boundaries using digital media, to facilitate international

participation and develop communication, and the dissemination of information and coordination among

activist networks around the world is hugely important. This chapter asserts that modern contentious

collective actions and contemporary movements have received an infusion of autonomy and grassrootsenergy fueled by the internet, digital technologies, and social networking platforms using Applied

Programming Interface (API). Arab Spring movements in Egypt and Tunisia illustrate the use of social

media within this emergent framework.

Chapter 2

Approaches to Development in M4D Studies: An Overview of Major Approaches ............................ 26

Jakob Svensson, Uppsala University, SwedenCaroline Wamala Larsson, Karlstad University, Sweden

There is no doubt that the proliferation of mobile phones in developing regions has opened up a range

of possibilities and new avenues for individuals, governments, development agencies and civil society

organisations. But we also know that development is a disputed concept and conveys a range of differentconnotations. Therefore in this chapter we examine the areas, where mobile phones are discussed

as vehicles for development (i.e. M4D), and how mobile communication is related to the idea(s) of

development today. To examine this, we have reviewed M4D articles in three major conference series

and open source journals during 2008-2012. Three dominant areas of M4D emerge out of our sample:

livelihood, health and civic participation. We find that M4D is largely based on an economic understanding

of development and biased towards techno-determinism we conclude this chapter by suggesting a future

path for studying the impact of mobile communication in developing regions, something what we label

as a dialectical approach.


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Chapter 3

Utopia, Labor, and Informational Capitalism: Lights and Shadows of Social Media .......................... 48

Marco Briziarelli, University of New Mexico

Through the lens of a political economic approach, I consider the question whether or not social media

can promote social change. I claim that whereas media have consistently channeled technological utopia/

dystopia, thus be constantly linked to aspirations and fear of social change, the answer to that question does

not depend on their specific nature but on historically specific social relations in which media operate. In the

case here considered, it requires examining the social relations re-producing and produced by informational

capitalism. More specifically, I examine how the productive relations that support user generated content

practices of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing

social contexts. Drawing on Fuchs and Sevignani’s (2013) distinction between “work” and “labor” I claim

that social media reflect the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which

exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Chapter 4Video Surveillance: Privacy Issues and Legal Compliance .................................................................. 68

Qasim Mahmood Rajpoot, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Christian Damsgaard Jensen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Pervasive usage of video surveillance is rapidly increasing in developed countries. Continuous security

threats to public safety demand use of such systems. Contemporary video surveillance systems offer

advanced functionalities which threaten the privacy of those recorded in the video. There is a need to

balance the usage of video surveillance against its negative impact on privacy. This chapter aims to

highlight the privacy issues in video surveillance and provides a model to help identify the privacy

requirements in a video surveillance system. The authors make a step in the direction of investigating the

existing legal infrastructure for ensuring privacy in video surveillance and suggest guidelines in order to

help those who want to deploy video surveillance while least compromising the privacy of people andcomplying with legal infrastructure.

Section 2

Social Change and ICTs around the World

Chapter 5

ICT, Media, and the Egyptian Revolution: Building Networks of Democracy .................................... 93

Ahmed El Gody, Örebro University, Sweden

The utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Egypt has irrevocably changed

the nature of the traditional Egyptian public sphere. The Egyptian online society can be viewed as a

multiplicity of networks. These networks have developed, transformed and expanded over time, operatingacross all areas of life. Nonetheless, in essence they are socio-political and cultural in origin. Network

communication changed the way audiences consumed news, with traditional media –especially independent

and opposition– starting to utilize ICTs to access online information to develop their media content, in

order to escape government control. Several media organizations also started to expand their presence

online so that, as well as providing news content, they also provided readers with a ‘space’ to interact

amongst themselves and with media organizations. Audiences started to provide detailed descriptions of

Egyptian street politics, posting multimedia material, generating public interest, and reinforcing citizen

power – and, hence, democratic capacity.


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Chapter 6

Internetworked Social Movements and the Promise of Politics: A Case Study of the 15M

Movement ........................................................................................................................................... 115

Julen Figueras, Malmö University, Sweden

This chapter analyses the Spanish social movement of the 15M, and the influence of Information and

Communication Technologies on it. Drawing a distinction between liberal and republican citizenship,

the first part of the chapter discusses the interactions between technology and social movements in terms

of political participation. This part compares and contrasts characteristics of online-based interactions

with offline mobilisations in Spain. The second part of the chapter compiles a set of features that can be

found in current Internetworked Social Movements, and its meaning from the perspective of political

engagement. The chapter concludes that ICTs contributed to the recuperation of republican politics

with current examples that suggest that forthcoming movements will promote this kind of participation.

Chapter 7

Microblogs, Jasmine Revolution, and Civil Unrests: Reassessing the Emergence of Public Sphereand Civil Society in People’s Republic of China ................................................................................ 139

Kenneth C. C. Yang, The University of Texas at El Paso, USAYowei Kang, Kainan University, Taiwan

Weibo provides an alternative channel for many Chinese citizens to obtain non-censored news contents

and share their opinions on public affairs. In this book chapter, the authors employed Jürgen Habermas’s

concept of public sphere to examine how Chinese Weibo users (i.e., microbloggers) make the most use

of this social medium to form a public sphere to contest omnipresent state power. Habermas’s analytical

framework helps to better comprehend the role of social media and its interactions with other stakeholders

in Chinese politics. The role of social media in shaping this less controlled sphere of political deliberation

and participation was examined using a case study approach. The authors analyzed the Chinese Jasmine

Revolution to discuss the interrelations among social media, civil society, state power, economicdevelopment, political process, and democratization in China. The case study identified Weibo’s essential

role as a device to bypass existing government censorship, to mobilize users, and to empower Chinese

Internet users to engage in political activities to foster its nascent civil society.

Chapter 8

Grassroots Political Campaign in Russia: Alexey Navalny and Transmedia Strategies for

Democratic Development ................................................................................................................... 165

Renira Rampazzo Gambarato, National Research University, RussiaSergei Medvedev, National Research University, Russia

This chapter analyzes the transmedia strategies of opposition candidate Alexey Navalny’s campaign during

the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. The goal is to highlight how the use of information and communication

technology contributed to the development of democratic practices in Russia. His westernized, grassroots

political campaign was a novelty in the country, involving online fundraising, door-to-door canvassing,

engagement of volunteers, digital projects, and meetings with voters, for instance. The argument is that,


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although Navalny lost the election, his candidacy represented advancement in terms of both the use

of new media and the promotion of democratic development in the midst of autocratic Russia. If the

progress will be maintained, it remains to be seen. The theoretical framework includes the reality of the

Russian political scenario and the conceptualization of transmedia storytelling strategies in the contextof participatory politics. The methodological approach is based on the transmedia analytical model by

Gambarato (2013).

Chapter 9

Designing and Implementing e-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India:

Actors, Behaviours, Influences, and Fields of Play............................................................................. 193

Shefali Virkar, University of Oxford

Attracted by the new Information and Communication Technologies, actors across the world have

adopted computer-based systems for use in government as a means of reforming inefficiencies in public

administration and public service provision. This book chapter, through the study of an electronic property

tax collection system in Bangalore, India, seeks to unravel the social dynamics shaping similar e-governmentinitiatives. The research upon which this chapter is based analyses prevailing actor behaviour, motivations,

and interactions; examining not only the interplay of local contingencies and external influences acting

upon the project’s implementation and transformation, but also the disjunctions in these relationships

which inhibit the effective exploitation of ICTs in the given context.

Chapter 10

Developer Challenges as a Platform for Citizen Engagement with Open Government Data: The

Australian Case ................................................................................................................................... 225

Raul Alberto Caceres, ChildFund Australia, AustraliaKelly Royds, University of New South Wales, Australia

Every year, state and national governments churn out enormous quantities of data on public life. The

rapid growth of information and communication technologies presents new opportunities for everyday

citizens to manipulate, use and disseminate these data in innovative ways. “Developer challenges” harness

this potential by inviting citizens to experiment, play and develop data-based applications for the public

benefit. This chapter explores the evolution of government initiated developer challenges in Australia and

uses existing theoretical approaches to assess their impact, benefit and potential to generate value. The

authors find that while developer challenges can provide an effective platform for citizen engagement,

more attention must be paid to the quality of the data and to the activities carried out after the events

finish. Moreover, the authors propose that in order to generate value there needs to be a higher level of

involvement from the government with the applications developed during these challenges.


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Chapter 11

The Infomediary Campaign in the Philippines as a Strategy to Alleviate Information Poverty ......... 250

Jaime A. Manalo IV, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Philippines

Katherine P. Balmeo, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Philippines Jayson P. Berto, Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilippinesFredierick M. Saludez, Philippine Rice Research Institute, Philippines

This chapter is about the Infomediary Campaign in the Philippines, a strategy to mobilize young people

in agriculture and to alleviate information poverty in remote rice-farming communities. It reflects on

how information and communications technology (ICTs) and some offline means can converge to address

information poverty, and thereby contribute to positive social change. Social change in this chapter is

operationalized as moving from a period of information scarcity to one with additional communication

pathways to alleviate information poverty. Surveys, interviews, and content analyses were used in data

collection. This chapter combines Stakeholder Theory and the Livelihoods Approach to better unpack

the results of this research. Key ingredients for upscaling the Campaign are identified. The strengths and

weaknesses of using the combined approach are discussed.

About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 280


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About the Contributors

Vikas Kumar received M Sc. in Electronics from Kurukshetra University, Haryana, India. This

was followed by M Sc in Computer Science and further Ph. D. from the same university. Along with

the two books, He has more than 100 research papers to his credit in various national and international

conferences and journals. His areas of interest include Cloud Computing, ICT for Development and

Electronic Communication.

Jakob Svensson is holding a position of associate professor in Media and Communication Studies

at Uppsala University. Dr. Svensson directs the MA program in Digital Media and Society. His research

focuses on two main areas, political participation on digital media platforms and mobile communication

in developing regions.

***

Katherine P. Balmeo is an Information Technology Professional, and she handles the Pinoy Rice

Knowledge Bank and infomediary4d.com websites. The PRKB is a portal that contains most information

one has to know about rice farming in the Philippines. The www.infomediary4d.com is the website that

contains all activities of the Infomediary Campaign as well as some resources on infomediary-related

research studies.

Jayson P. Berto is a development communication practitioner and a team member of the Infomedi-

ary Campaign. His research interests are information and communications technology for development

and use of audiovisuals for development.

Marco Briziarelli studies critical approaches to media and communication theory, especially as

these fields intersect with broader issues in political and social theory, intellectual and cultural history.

Dr. Briziarelli is also interested in media and social movements and critical conceptualization of digital

labor. His work has appeared in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies; Critical Studies in Media

Communication; Triple C; Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies; Journalism; Handbook

on Global Media and Communication Policy. He is the author of the books The Red Brigades and the

Discourse of Violence: Revolution and Restoration, and the soon to be published Gramsci, Communica-

tion and Social Change.

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http://www.infomediary4d.com/http://www.infomediary4d.com/


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Raul Alberto Caceres started his professional life as an Engineer. In 2006, after receiving the Online

Volunteer of the Year Award from the United Nations, Raul decided to change his career to work in

different parts of the world helping others use technology for social good. Using information and com-

munication technologies, he has driven the development of multiple education and community-basedenterprises across Africa and the Asia Pacific region. Raul is also an active member of the open govern-

ment data movement in Australia and has received numerous awards at various developer challenges.

Ahmed El Gody, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Media and Communication Department and

director of Journalism Connected Master’s Program, at Orebro University Sweden. His recent research

foci are new media and democratic process in the Middle East and Africa, social media and civic move-

ments, and the changing role of the journalism profession. His recent research is published in Journalism

Studies, Digital Journalism, and New Media and Society. His recent publications include Journalism in

a network: role of ICTs inside Egyptian newsrooms.

Julen Figueras, with a background in law and political sciences, received a MA in Human Rightsfrom Malmö University (Sweden) in 2013. He currently lives in Spain, combining his studies in Com-

munication for Development while working at a local NGO that deals with women’s rights. His research

interests revolve around social movements, new political parties and how information and communication

technologies affect political participation, as he is currently interested in pursuing a doctorate in this field.

Christian Jensen holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble,

France), a M.Sc. in computer science from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and an M.A. (jure

officii) from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). He is an associate professor at the Department of Applied

Mathematics & Computer Science at the Technical University of Denmark, where he teaches and con-

ducts research in the area of security in open distributed systems. For the past 15 years, he has focused on

trust-based methods and technologies to secure collaboration among entities in open distributed system.

This work addresses all 3 As in AAA: Authentication, where he has pioneered work in virtual anonymity

and entity recognition; Access control policies and mechanisms that build on the human notion of trust;

and Accountability through reputation and recommendation systems.

Yowei Kang (Ph.D.) is Assistant Professor at Degree Program of Creative Industries and Digital Film,

Kainan University, Taiwan. His research interests focus on digital game research; technology and rhetoric;

composition pedagogy using digital game technology; and teaching English as a second language (ESL).

Caroline Wamala Larsson divides her time between three intermixed positions: - Director for the

HumanIT Research Center – Karlstad University - Senior lecturer with the center for Gender Research

– Karlstad University - Program Manager with the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions,

Spider (Stockholm University, DSV). Located in the Gender and Technology discipline, Caroline’s

research focuses on the use of Information Communication Technologies in development (ICT4D)

processes where she uses gender as a point of analysis. Specifically acknowledging the mutual construc-

tion of gender and technology, Caroline’s research contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural

embeddeness of ICT. Or put simply, ICTs (Technologies) are rarely neutral entities, they are themselves

cultural enterprises. Caroline is situated in both the practical and academic development of ICT4D, where

ICT4D is the focal point in the three positions she holds.

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Jaime Albarillo Manalo IV holds a Master of Communication in the field of Communication for

Social Change degree from the University of Queensland, Australia. He has presented and written papers

for national and international conferences on information and communications technology for develop-

ment. He has also written papers on the same area in refereed journals. He is leading a campaign onmobilizing young individuals to become infomediaries for farmers. Youth and ICTs, youth engagement in

agriculture, and development informatics are his research interests. He maintains a blog on development

communication for young development communication practitioners http://devcomjourney.blogspot.com/.

Sergei Medvedev is currently a research assistant in transmedia storytelling at the National Research

University Higher School of Economics, Russia. He received his M.A. degree in creative industries from

the Higher School of Economics for his thesis on “Transmediality of The Voice Russia.” He also holds

a B.A. degree in journalism.

Qasim Rajpoot is a PhD candidate at the Technical University of Denmark. He received his Master’s

degree in Computer Security from University of Birmingham, UK in 2007. He has been a visiting scholarat the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA and has worked as an intern at the Hewlett-Packard Labs,

Bristol, UK where he focused on securely managing cryptographic keys exploiting trusted computing.

He has also worked as a lecturer at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National

University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. His research interests include

privacy protection, information security and access control.

Renira Rampazzo Gambarato is currently Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Communications,

Media and Design at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, in Moscow, Russia.

Originally from Brazil, she has studied and worked also in Germany, Canada, Qatar and Estonia. Her Post-

doctorate in Film Studies is from Concordia University, Canada and she holds a PhD in Communication

and Semiotics from Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil and Kassel University, Germany;

a MA in Communication and Semiotics also from Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and a BA

in Industrial Design from São Paulo State University, Brazil. Visit her Web page http://talkingobjects.org.

Kelly Royds is a PhD Candidate at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her work and

research for the past eight years has focused on the use of participatory media for social justice and

development education. Her doctoral study explores the intersections of childhood, participatory media

and international development.

Fredierick M. Saludez is an agriculturist, text center agent, and rice specialist. He leads the techni-

cal component of the Infomediary campaign, particularly conducted of capacity building activities for

teachers of the campaign’s participating schools.

Emily Stacey is a doctoral candidate at Swansea University (Wales) in Political and Cultural Studies.

Her research focuses on the use of digital technologies in contemporary protest movements and revolu-

tions. Her studies have included the Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Program (2014) and the

Digital Methods Initiative Summer School (2013). Most recently, Emily has given presentations at the

Media and Arab Spring Conference in Ifrane, Morocco and Oklahoma Political Science Association

Annual Conference.

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http://talkingobjects.org/http://talkingobjects.org/


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Shefali Virkar is a research student at the University of Oxford, UK, currently working for a D.Phil.

in Politics. Her doctoral research seeks to explore the growing use of Information and Communication

Technologies (ICTs) to promote better governance in the developing world, with special focus on the

political and institutional impacts of ICTs on local public administration reform in India. Shefali holdsan M.A. in Globalisation, Governance and Development from the University of Warwick, UK. Her

Master’s thesis analysed the concept of the Digital Divide in a globalising world, its impact develop-

ing countries and the ensuing policy implications. At Oxford, Shefali is a member of Keble College.

University Address: Miss Shefali Virkar Keble College Parks Road Oxford OX1 3PGHome Address:

Miss Shefali Virkar 27 Marlborough Hill London NW8 0NGEmail: [email protected] or

[email protected]: 07731 463955

Kenneth Yang is a Professor at the Department of Communication. As a native of Taiwan, Dr. Yang’s

research focuses on consumer behavior in East Asia, new media and advertising, and impacts of new

media in Asian countries.

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Chapter 9

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8502-4.ch009

ABSTRACT

Attracted by the new Information and Communication Technologies, actors across the world have adopted

computer-based systems for use in government as a means of reforming inefficiencies in public adminis-

tration and public service provision. This book chapter, through the study of an electronic property tax

collection system in Bangalore, India, seeks to unravel the social dynamics shaping similar e-government

initiatives. The research upon which this chapter is based analyses prevailing actor behaviour, motiva-

tions, and interactions; examining not only the interplay of local contingencies and external influences

acting upon the project’s implementation and transformation, but also the disjunctions in these relation-

ships which inhibit the effective exploitation of ICTs in the given context.

INTRODUCTION

Over the course of the last two decades, globalisation and Information Technology have been rapidly

dismantling traditional barriers to trade, travel, and communication; fuelling great promise for prog-

ress towards greater global equity and prosperity. Attracted by the ‘hype and hope’ of Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs), developmental actors across the world have adopted complex

computer-based network systems and related ICTs for use in government as a means of reforming the

Designing and Implementinge-Government Projects

for Democracy and SocialChange in India:

Actors, Behaviours, Inuences,and Fields of Play

Shefali VirkarUniversity of Oxford


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Designing and Implementing e-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India

inefficiencies in public service provision (Ciborra, 2005). However, whilst a number of these electronic

governance or e-governance projects have achieved significant results, evidence from the field indicates

that despite the reported success stories, the rate of project failure remains particularly high (Dunleavy

et. al., 2006). Consequently, there has been an increased questioning of traditional democratic politics in

Western liberal democracies, largely due to a decline in and a lack of opportunity for public participation

in these processes (Virkar, 2014).

Concerns such as these are largely thought to be embodied in (amongst other phenomena) low voter

turnout during elections; a trend particularly noticeable amongst young people where only half of those

eligible to vote actually do so (The Electoral Commission Report, 2005). This is especially worrying

and problematic for governments, as it speaks of growing political apathy and a broader, more general

disillusionment with current political institutions, actors and practices. Whilst it is impossible to com-

prehensively untangle all the reasons for the decline in civic participation in these countries, there is

little doubt that many citizens feel distanced from any sense of political relevance or power, often under

the impression that not only will their votes and individual voices be drowned out in the clamour of the

crowd, but that the rules which govern their daily lives are drawn up by politicians and bureaucrats whom

they will never meet and who are usually extremely difficult to contact (Eggers, 2005).

Leading commentators have described the political processes and institutions integral to Western

democracies as undergoing what has been variously described as ‘a crisis of legitimacy’, a ‘credibility

crisis’ or a ‘crisis of democracy’ (cf. Habermas, 1985;Archibugi& Held, 1995), and are fast reaching

agreement that the fundamental flaw lies in traditional decision-making practices which are, in their

current form, often democratically inadequate as they fail to provide extensive and relatively equal op-

portunities for citizens, communities, and groups to contribute towards the shaping of decision-making

agendas (Sclove 1995). The focus of discourse and scholarly activity, both in academic and policy

circles, has thus gradually shifted away from a more centralised, top-down conception of ‘government’

– those formal institutions and processes which operate at the level of the nation state to maintain public

order and facilitate collective action (Stoker, 1998) – towards the notions of ‘deliberative democracy’

or ‘governance’, ideas which, whilst traditionally synonymous for government, have been captured in

recent theoretical work as signifying ‘a change in the meaning of government referring to a new process

of governing; or a changed condition of ordered rule; or the new method by which society is governed’

(Rhodes, 1996: 652).

Governance may hence be seen as ultimately being concerned with crafting the conditions for ordered

rule and collective action, or with ‘the creation of a structure or an order which cannot be externally im-

posed, but which is the result of the interaction of a multiplicity of governing and each other inf luencing

actors’ (Kooiman & Van Vliet, 1993: 64). It is, in other words, a conceptual way of capturing shifts in the

character of political rule which has been stretched to encompass a range of different transformations;

including an emphasis on drawing citizens and communities into the process of collaborative participa-tion in political processes and the creation of new forms of governable subjects (Newman, 2005).

DIS(CONNECTED) CITIZENSHIP? ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCEAND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN A WEB 2.0 LANDSCAPE

The idea of governance, and by extension e-Governance, may be therefore said to comprise of two distinct

but complementary elements: that of e-Government – which encompasses all the formal institutional


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and legal structures of a country, and e-Democracy – which can be said to refer to the participative and

deliberative processes which operate within those structures (Virkar, 2007). Broadly speaking, on the one

hand, e-Government itself may be further divided into two distinct areas: (1) e-Administration, which

refers to the improvement of government processes and to the streamlining of the internal workings of

the public sector often using ICT-based information systems, and (2) e-Services, which refers to the

improved delivery of public services to citizens through multiple electronic platforms (Virkar, 2011).

On the other hand, the concept of e-Democracy may be further subdivided into two distinct areas:

e-Engagement (or, rather more broadly,e-Participation), which emphasises opportunities for greater

consultation and dialogue between government and citizens, and e-Voting, the expression of fundamental

democratic rights and duties online (Virkar, 2007). e-Participation as a policy, if defined by an express

intent to increase the involvement of citizens in decision-making through the use of the new digital media,

would consequently encompass the institutionalised provision of resources to facilitate the responsible

and collaborative decision-making pivotal ultimately to institutional and social change (Dahlgren, 2009).

Whilst the earliest speculations about the Internet and Democracy emphasised the potential for di-

rect, unmediated participation (Svensson, 2008) and the transformative nature of the process of public

engagement, this chapter follows the view of scholars such as Coleman and Gotze (2001) that whilst e-

Democracy is incompatible with a political culture of élitism, it is not about replacing what has evolved

so far but instead. Rather than seeking to radically transform governance along any particular ideologi-

cal line, it aims to complement the institutions and processes of representative democracy. In this view,

facilitating the involvement of different sections of society in the process of government is now seen

as a democratic prerequisite in many advanced liberal democracies, with some commentators such as

Fishkin (1995) highlighting the need for ‘mass deliberation’, and emphasising the need for people and

their representatives to be brought together to collaborate on issues of mutual interest.

The recent exponential growth in access to new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),

and the expansion of a newly-created digital environment wherein people shop, talk, and otherwise spend

large parts of their lives in online spaces, has opened up a plethora of new opportunities for interaction

between power elites and the various constituent elements of civil society. At the same time, their rapid

proliferation has raised important questions and triggered debates as to who is able to participate and

to what extent they may do so, as well as the types of participation such technologies make possible

at different levels of government and their impact on different government institutions and democratic

processes (Virkar, 2011).

The starting point of this book chapter is therefore the recognition of an apparently new way of conceiv-

ing contemporary society, and the acknowledgement of the pivotal roles that information, communication,

and technology play within it. Social scientists have long seen ‘information’ as the defining feature of

the modern world, however, what makes today’s age distinct from before is the growing convergence of

digital computing, telecommunications, and human infrastructure; reflected in the shift in terminologyfrom Information Technology or I.T. to Information and Communications Technology or I.C.T. (Virkar,

2014). Popular and academic literature tells us that we stand on the edge of the Information Age, where

both information and technology have become ‘symbol(s) of political potency and economic prosper-

ity’ (Martin, 1998). We live and work in ‘weightless knowledge economies’ and will soon be part of a

‘global information society’. These clichés are not used without reason (Webster, 2014).

The world is continuing to witness the burgeoning growth of new electronic Information and Com-

munications Technologies (ICTs) and their associated platforms and applications: the Internet and the

World Wide Web have spawned multimedia and interactive technologies, video-conferencing, virtual


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realities, computer-aided design, the information superhighway, and technologies for consumer profiling

and surveillance; all of which enable the electronic production, transmission, processing, communica-

tion, and consumption of increasingly vast quantities of information and know-how. Like their prede-

cessors – the printing press, the telegraph, the radio, and black-and-white television – advanced ICTs

have become an intrinsic part of our everyday social, political, and economic lives. They are embedded

in an array of networks and services across the spectrum of human activity: from education to politics,

from the arts to sport, from medicine to music, these technologies are set to transform the way in which

people work, think, act, and interact.

Through the use of a central, single case study, the chapter will seek to unravel the social dynamics

shaping e-government projects used to reform public sector institutions in India. In particular, the research

analyses actor behaviour, motivations, and interactions surrounding the conception and maintenance

of e-government software platforms facilitating societal and democratic transformations. The value of

such an approach is based on a review of existing ICT and development literature which tends to be

overly systems-rational in its approach; often neglecting the actual attitudes, choices, motivations, and

behaviour of the wide array of actors involved in the implementation and use of new technology in real

organisations and institutions. The tendency for scholars and practitioners to see e-government applica-

tions as isolated technical artefacts, analysed solely as collections of hardware and software, often fails,

as a consequence, to recognise the degree to which project failure, or the general inability of a project

design to meet stated goals and to resolve both predicted and emerging problems, is symptomatic of

a broader, much more complex set of interrelated inequalities, unresolved deficiencies, and lopsided

power-relationships; both within the adopting organisation and in the surrounding environmental context.

From this, the main goal of this chapter will be to examine from a multidisciplinary perspective the

issues thrown up by the organisational and institutional transformations that occur in public administra-

tion through the conception and application of ICT platforms therein. The case study from which this

chapter is drawn focuses on a project aimed at digitising property tax records and administrative processes

within the Revenue Department of the Greater Bangalore City Municipal Corporation (or BBMP). In

recognising the need to turn property tax into a viable revenue instrument that delivers high tax yields

without compromising on citizen acceptance, the Bangalore City Corporation sought to improve its

property tax administration system through the introduction of a computerised database and digital

mapping techniques used to track compliance and to check evasion.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The ultimate aim of this chapter is thus to contribute to the development of a conceptual framework that

is relevant to policy discussions of e-government software platform design and maintenance within notonly an Indian, but also a broader global context. In order to augment theoretical discussions of admin-

istrative reform in a digitised world, this chapter uses a case study to explore its central research issues,

within which a mixed-methods approach employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative data

was selected to inform and to strengthen the understanding of the relationships between the actors, inputs,

and project outputs. The aim of the study was, therefore, to evolve ideas that could be generalised across

similar situations and the research was consequently developed in the following steps:


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• In-depth review of existing theoretical perspectives and literature surrounding corruption and tax

evasion, ICTs and public administration, and property tax reform.

• Qualitative analysis of official documents;

• Collection and analysis of quantitative data relevant to the case;

• Developing case studies through in-depth personal interviews;

• Data analysis and interpretation;

• Preparation of conclusions and their validation;

• Recommendations for the future.

The use of mixed-method case study research is becoming increasingly popular in the social sci-

ences, and is fast being recognised as a successful approach for investigating contemporary phenomena

in a real-life context when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not evident and where

multiple sources of evidence present themselves (Yin, 2003). It was thus felt to be a particularly apt

way of studying the nature and impact of actor actions, motivations and behaviours on e-government

software platform conception and design, where the aim is not simply to judge whether the project at

hand represents a success or failure, but is to understand the qualities inherent in the architecture that

have made it so.

More precisely, case study research consists of a detailed investigation of phenomena within a given

context, often with data being collected over a period of time. The aim of this approach is thus to provide

the researcher with an all-round analysis of the surrounding environment and processes, in order that

they might throw light on the theoretical issues being investigated (Eisenhardt, 1989). The phenomenon

under examination is thus not isolated from its context, rather it is of interest precisely because the aim

is to observe and understand actor behaviour and/or organisational processes and their interplay with

the surrounding environment. The use of a case study itself is therefore not as much a method as it is a

research strategy, where the context is deliberately included as part of the overall design. Today, case

studies are widely used in organisational research across the social sciences, indicating growing confi-

dence in the approach as a rigorous research strategy in its own right (Hartley, 2005).

As research conducted by adopting this strategy is typically done in the field, the presence of too many

observations and uncontrollable ‘variables’ makes the application of standard experimental or survey

approaches infeasible. Further, information tends to be scattered and generally cannot be picked up using

one single method (Eisenhardt, 1989). Case studies thus typically combine a number of data collection

methods such as participant observation, direct observation, interviews, focus groups, ethnography,

document analysis, questionnaires etc., where evidence may be quantitative or qualitative depending

on the research issues at hand (Hartley, 2005). The approach is consequently flexible, allowing for new

methods to be incorporated as new sources of data and new actors present themselves. The case study

approach may thus be and has been used for various purposes – to provide a descriptive narrative, togenerate new theory, or to test existing theory through the triangulation of data (Virkar, 2011).

The theoretical framework adopted by this research will emphasise three issues: first, the politics

involved in the conception, innovation, and governance of software platforms for public administration,

which is related to the set of institutions and rules that set the limits on, and the incentives that result

in, the constitution and working of interdependent networks of actors within the industry and within

government; second, the concept of electronic government itself as circumscribed by socio-political

and economic development; and finally, the relationship and interrelationships between technology,


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organisation, and institutional change. To do this, the chapter will ground its case study in three major

complementary strands of literature, first delineated in Virkar (2011):

1. A conceptual discussion of the role and interactions of a multiplicity of actors with diverse motiva-

tions and strategies conceptualized as an ‘ecology of games’, or an overarching sphere of symbiotic

action falling within the umbrella of New Institutionalism, and their role in shaping political organi-

sations and institutions; with special reference to the success or failure of e-government projects.

2. The literature which deals with public administration reform and the role of Information and

Communication Technologies in improving the functioning of public administration and reducing

corruption in a developing country context.

3. A discussion of the importance of the ICT hardware and software industry, with special reference

to software platform design for e-government and politico-economic development in India.

Conclusions will be reached through the concurrent use of three dimensions – theoretically on the

basis of existing literature, descriptively on the basis of a case study, and analytically using a unique

hybrid of the complementary conceptual frameworks of the Ecology of Games (Long, 1958) and the

Design-Actuality Gap model (Heeks, 2003).

For the larger study from which this chapter is drawn, 40 personal interviews were conducted over

a 24-month period. The interviewees can be roughly divided into four groups based on their relation-

ship to the case: Senior Civil Servants involved with the planning and implementation of the project,

including current and former BBMP Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners for Revenue, and Revenue

Officers, Revenue and Tax Officials, primarily Assistant Revenue Officers (AROs) responsible for the

in-the-field collection and administration of property tax in the city, Software Developers involved in the

conception, design, and implementation of the project, and Miscellaneous Actors including journalists

and external consultants.

Twenty-seven subjects agreed to full-length interviews and to have their comments recorded. This

included all six members of the project planning committee, one senior official involved with the imple-

mentation of the GIS, and twenty senior revenue officers involved with the system’s application in the

field. Additional informal interviews conducted face-to-face or over the email were also used to close

gaps in knowledge or to follow up new information and anchor the interpretation of events and motives

in the perceptions of participants. In addition to the recorded interviews, this chapter uses information

and quotes obtained informally from people related to the project who did not wish to be interviewed

formally or have their comments recorded. Out of the 13 people in this category, 10 were junior revenue

officials (Station Managers, Tax Inspectors and Accountants) working under the AROs interviewed, 2

were Revenue Officers supervising the overall administration of the Revenue Offices and one person

was a local correspondent from a leading national daily.

UNDERSTANDING ACTOR BEHAVIOUR WITHIN THECONTEXT OF COMPLEX COMPUTER SYSTEMS

The design and implementation of complex computer systems, such as those that support e-government

platforms, requires a better understanding in practitioner circles of the users of such networks and the

settings in which they work. Part of the problem resides in the implicit treatment of ordinary people as


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unskilled, non-specialist users of technology and their networks comprising of elementary processes or

factors that can be studied in isolation in a field laboratory setting (Bannon, 1991). Another contribut-

ing aspect is the approach of computational sociologists and computer scientists to the mathematical

modelling of social processes as interactions amongst quantifiable variables, wherein the behaviour of

individual actors and other micro-factors that constitute aggregative sociological outcomes are ignored

at the cost of the initial macro-conditions that they otherwise circumscribe, constrain, and influence

(Macy &Willer, 2002).

Although psychology has a long tradition of contributing to computer systems design and imple-

mentation, it has been a neglected discipline in scholarly circles. Moreover, key issues such as those

related to the underlying values of the people involved in large-scale system design, and their motiva-

tional basisfor interaction in the work setting, have been missed out in recent computer science-based

scholarly analysis (Salvendy, 2012). Conceptualising and understanding people as actors in situations,

on the other hand, each with a set of skills and shared practices based on work experiences with others,

requires a reorientation of the way in which the relationship between key elements of computer system

design, namely people, technology, work requirements, and organisational constraints in work settings,

is negotiated (Kuutti, 1996).

The use of the terms ‘human factors’ and ‘human actors’ give us a clue as to how people in system

design clusters are approached (Virkar, 2011). More particularly, the terms highlight difference in how

people and their contributions are perceived, the former connoting a passive, fragmented, depersonalised,

somewhat automatic human contribution to the systems environment; the latter an active, controlling,

involved one (Carayon et. al, 2012). More precisely, within the human factor approach, the human ele-

ment is more often than not reduced to being another system component with certain characteristics

that need to be factored into the design equation for the overall human-machine system (Czaja & Nair,

2012). In doing so, the approach de-emphasises certain important elements of work design: the goals,

values, and beliefs which technologists and system-users hold about life and work (Jacko et. al., 2012).

By using the term human actor , emphasis is placed on considering users and developers as autonomous

agents possessing the capacity to control, regulate, and coordinate their behaviour, rather than them be-

ing on par and analysed as mere information processing automatons (Proctor & Vu, 2012). The study

of actor interactions is key to e-government initiatives, as it is important to determine the impact that

actor motivations have on consultative and participatory processes, and subsequently on policy outcomes

(Salvendy, 2012).

One approach to understanding behaviour is to look at the composition of individual actors, rather

than the system as a whole. This is largely because political actors are driven by a combination of or-

ganisational and institutional roles and duties and calculated self-interest; with political interaction being

organised around the construction and interpretation of meaning as well as the making of choices (Virkar,

2013). The main actors in electronic consultation process may be placed into two groups:

• Internal Actors: Comprise chiefly of those institutional actors responsible for the maintenance,

upkeep and running of a project, including (a) officers of the assembly who are responsible for the

operation of the system such as IT specialists and forum moderators, and (b) elected representa-

tives (and their support staff) who respond to petitions individually and collectively.

• External Actors: Comprise of two distinct categories including (a) participants (the person

or group) who initiates an online interaction after identifying an issue and follows its progress

through from submission to final feedback and outcome and (b) citizens: those individuals who


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may or may not be entitled to participate but who will invariably impact the outcome of a policy

process through their ability to shape public opinion.

The central issue that needs to be understood whilst studying the development of ICT platforms and

their implementation in public sector organisations through an analysis of actor interactions is thus: What

motivates people do what they do? One approach to understanding behaviour is to look at the rationality

of actors and actor-groups; rather than at individual human factors or at the computer system network

as a whole. This is largely because human actors are driven by a combination of organisational and in-

stitutional roles and duties and calculated self-interest; with political, social, and economic interactions

being organised around the construction and interpretation of meaning as well as the making of choices.

One approach to the study of political e-participation begins by defining and examining the motives

and goals that prompt actors to interact and participate in decision- and policy making processes on-

line. All interactions in this vein are motivated in some way and individuals will engage in a particular

behaviour in order to achieve a desired end (Atkinson & Birch, 1970). Political actors, in particular,

have a complex set of goals including power, income, prestige, security, convenience, loyalty (to an

idea, an institution, or to the nation), pride in work well done, and a desire to serve the public interest

(as the individual actor conceives it). Added to this, individuals and private citizens tend to participate

in politics for altruistic or conformist reasons, to boost their self-esteem, to self-enhance, and to achieve

self-efficacy (Virkar, 2011). Actors range from being purely self-interested ‘climbers’ or ‘conservers’

motivated entirely by goals which benefit themselves and their status quo rather than their organizations

or the society at large, to having mixed motives as ‘zealots’, ‘advocates’ and ‘statesmen’ motivated by

goals which combine self-interest and altruistic loyalty with larger values (Downs, 1964).

For citizens and users of the e-government application, the motivation to use the system may be either

intrinsic or extrinsic (Cruickshank et. al., 2010). Intrinsic motives include the desire to feel competent

and self-determining, to show altruism, or to seek to increase the welfare of others. On the other hand,

extrinsic motives are usually associated with some sort of external reward in the social, economic, or

political sphere. Both these manifest themselves in conditional co-operation, social pressure, thresholds

and the bandwagon effect (Margetts et. al., 2012). Different motives and goals may underlie the same

surface behaviour, with the social and psychological consequences of participation may be different for

different users (i.e. some participate to gain information or support, others to communicate), resulting

in a set of nested, interrelated interactions with the framework of a large meta-game or playing field

(Virkar, 2011). Consequently, the motivations and goals for using the online resources will determine

how they will they be used, by whom, and when. An in-depth analysis of the ICT for development lit-

erature by this researcher identified five actor groups involved in games and interactions relating to the

implementation of e-government projects:

1. Politicians: The first group identified comprises of elected representatives of various hues, guided

and influenced chiefly by electoral imperatives and a need to maintain their public image, and are

therefore concerned with directing both key economic policy issues as well as issues of public

service delivery.

2. Administrators/Civil Servants: This group of actors is guided by their perceptions of existing

institutional ‘culture’ and practices and their positive (or negative) attitudes towards internal bu-

reaucratic reforms such as concerns about the down-sizing of administrative services to promote

‘efficiency’ and a sense of being policed by elected government through the introduction of ICTs.


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3. Organisations Dealing with Technical Designing of IT and ICT Systems: The approach private

IT suppliers take to e-government might be considerably different to what the adopting government

agency actually needs or wants from a system.

4. Citizens: This is another particularly interesting group of actors as one is never quite sure what their

reaction to the implementation of e-government will be. Whilst in theory citizens should welcome

the introduction of a system that simplifies administrative processes, in practice it is equally pos-

sible that some citizens might not be very happy if a more efficient system was put into place.

5. International Donors: This final actor group controls the purse-strings and oftentimes comes to

the table with ‘higher’ ideals coloured by ideas prevalent in international politics (such as the desire

to see a particular brand of ‘good governance’ in the developing world).

ASSESSING PROJECT OUTCOME

In deciding to evaluate the outcome and impact of an e-government project, it falls to the researcher to

first choose between adopting quantitative or qualitative methods of analysis. According to Wolstenholme

(1999), no single method provides for a complete analysis of a situation, and there is a need always

for further speculation beyond the insights reached by their use. Thus, matching methods to identify

the underlying characteristics of a problem situation represents an issue that needs to be considered,

especially in complex situations such as during ICT adoption in government (Gupta & Jana, 2003). To

fill this lacuna, this chapter discusses Norton Long’s (1958) Ecology of Games Metaphor and Richard

Heek’s (2003) Design-Actuality Gap Model as analytical frameworks used to illustrate and analyse the

various influences that may have an impact on project outcome.

When used in combination, as will be made apparent in subsequent subsections, these two frameworks

allow the researcher to not only identify and analyse patterns of behaviour within a given case under study,

but also to link actor decisions and actions to specific project outcomes. On the one hand, the strength of

the Ecology of Games Metaphor lies in its ability to identify and analyse the interrelationships between

the different actors involved in the process of e-government system design and adoption. However, when

taken alone, it provides no insight into the consequences of this behaviour and its subsequent impact

on project outcome. Likewise, the Design-Actuality Gap Model is, on the other hand, able to analyse

structural weaknesses in a project’s design but does not, on its own, provide an adequate explanation of

the decision-making processes that led to such structural deficiencies in the first place.

ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK

The Ecology of Games Metaphor

From the turn of the century to the present, there has been a progressive movement away from the view

that governance is the outcome of rational calculation to achieve specific goals by a unitary governmental

actor (Dutton, 1992), and in that context metaphors based on political games have been extremely use-

ful in developing new ways to think about the policy process and to explain certain features of political

behaviour (Virkar, 2011). However, Game Theory and other similar metaphors have had, according

to scholars, one major limitation in clarifying policy processes: they focus squarely on a single arena


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or field of action; be it a school, a county, a legislature, etc. By their very nature, policy making and

implementation cut across these separate arenas, in both their development and impact (Firestone, 1989).

One of the few efforts to look at this interaction and interdependence in a more holistic fashion was

proposed by Norton Long (1958) in his seminal discussion of The Local Community as an Ecology of

Games. The Ecology of Games framework, as first laid out in the late 1950s, offers a New Institutional-

ist perspective on organisational and institutional analysis. The framework was developed as a way of

reconciling existing debates about who governed local communities, as Long believed they possessed

significant flaws (Long, 1958). As with most theories of New Institutionalism, it recognises that political

institutions are not simple echoes of social forces; that routines, rules, and forms within organisations

and institutions evolve through historically interdependent processes that do not reliably and quickly

reach equilibrium (March & Olsen, 1989).

Long contended that the structured group activities that coexist in a particular territorial system can be

looked at as ‘games’ (Dutton, 1992). Games may be interrelated in several ways: actors (‘players’) might

be simultaneously participating in different games, and some might transfer from one game to another

(Long, 1958). Plays (i.e., moves or actions) made in one game can affect the play of others. Also, the

outcome of one game might affect the rules or play of another (Crozier & Friedberg, 1980), and players’

moves in one game might be constrained by moves within other games. Individuals may play a number of

games, or their major preoccupation for the most part may lie with one central interaction (Long, 1958).

A researcher might be able to anticipate a range of strategies open to individuals or organizations if

they know what role the actor or group played in the game(s) most central to them. Conversely, when the

actions of players appear irrational to an observer, it is likely that the observer does not know the games

or interactions in which the players under study are most centrally involved, and the players’ moves in

one game might be constrained by their moves within other under-examined or overlooked situations.

Within each game or interaction, the following elements help the researcher arrive at an in-depth analysis

of the impact that various behaviours have on the outcome of the project under study (Virkar, 2011b):

1. Key Actors: The individuals, groups, or other entities whose interactions shape the particular game

being considered;

2. Game Rules: The written or unwritten codes of conduct that shape actor moves and choices during

a game;

3. Actor Goals and Motivations: The aims that key actors seek to attain and maintain from interacting

with other players, both broader long-term achievements as well as more short- to medium-term

rewards;

4. Key Strategies: Tactics, ruses, and ploys adopted by key actors during the course of a game to

keep the balance of the engagement in their favour;

5. Key Moves: Decisions and other plays made by key actors to arrive at key goals, usually if notalways based on their strategy of choice.

The crucial insight in Long’s theory however, was not the idea of games per se which, but his link-

ing of that notion to the metaphor of an ecology (Firestone, 1989). Ecology as a concept relates to the

interrelationships of species in their environment, allowing for numerous relationships amongst entities,

and has been used to understand the relationships amongst individuals and more complex social systems

(Virkar, 2011).


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Most obviously, co-existence within a common space results in competition for resources and power

between different actors, and can result in unique modes of operation as means of achieving ones aims.

This in turn may lead to either mutual non-involvement in the same space, or to active co-operation

between different actors and the development of symbiotic relationships (Dutton, 1992).All this speaks

of a singular interdependence between different actors within a given territory. Although there may be

other relationships as well, what is significantly missing is a single, rational, coordinating presence.

An ecology of games is thus a larger system of action composed of two or more separate but inter-

dependent games; underlining not only the degree to which not all players in any given territory are

involved in the same game, but also the fact that different players within that territory are likely to be

involved in a variety of interactions (Dutton & Guthrie, 1991). For Long (1958), territories (or fields

of play) were defined quite literally by being local communities. The notion of an ‘ecology’ of games

underlines not only the degree to which not all players in any given territory are involved in the same

game, but also the fact that different players within that territory are likely to be involved in a variety of

games (Dutton & Guthrie, 1991).

Moved from the community context to the world of e-government platform design, adoption, and

implementation, territories may be diverse – from the inner circle of the project design team, through

to the adopting organisation, the nation, and finally the international policy arena. The original idea,

however, of each stage being a political community or a collection of actors whose actions have political

implications remains the same and is still very much applicable. The Ecology of Games metaphor thus

provides us with a useful way to think about how the various players interact in making and carrying

out administration and in developing policy.

ANALYTICAL MODEL

The Design-Actuality Gap Framework

Like all political interactions, the behaviour of actors related to the design of e-government architecture

and to the uptake of public sector projects is circumscribed by the organisations and institutions within

which they are played out, and by the range of actors taken from the individuals and groups directly and

indirectly involved with the processes of decision-making and governance. The eventual outcome of an

e-government project in terms of both appearance and efficacy does not, therefore, depend on a single

project entity alone, and instead depends on the interaction between different actors in the process and

the nature of the relationships between them. Gaps in project design and implementation can in reality

be seen as expressions of differences arising from the interaction between different (often conflicting)

actor moves and strategies, determined to a large extent by actor perceptions, and played out within thecontext of set circumstances.

Heeks (2003) concluded that the major factor determining project outcome was the degree of mismatch

between the current realities of a situation (the ‘where are we now’) and the models, conceptions, and

assumptions built into a project’s design (the ‘where the e-government project wants to get us’). From

this perspective, e-government success and failure depends largely on the size of this ‘design-actuality

gap’: the larger gap, the greater the risk of e-government failure, the smaller the gap, the greater the

chance of project success. By examining numerous case studies related to ICTs and e-government failure


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in developing countries, Heeks (2002) identified three dominant categories of reported outcome: total

failure, partial failure, and success.

• The first possible outcome is total failure, where a project is either never implemented or in which

a new system is implemented but is almost immediately abandoned.

• A second possible outcome is the partial failure of an initiative, in which major goals are unat-

tained or where there are significant undesirable outcomes. Cases range from straightforward

underachievement to more complex “sustainability failures” of an initiative.

• Finally, one may see the success of an initiative, in which most actor groups attain their major

goals and do not experience significant undesirable outcomes.

Heeks (2003) also identified three so-called ‘archetypes of failure’, situations wherein a large

design-actuality gap, and consequently project failure, is likely to emerge: Hard-Soft Gaps (the differ-

ence between the actual, rational design of the technology and the actuality of the social context within

which it operates), Public-Private Gaps (the mismatch that results when technology meant for private

organisations is used in the public sector without being adequately adapted to the adopting organisation)

and Country Context Gaps (the gap that arises when a system designed for one country is transferred

unaltered into the reality of another).

Hard-Soft Gaps

Hard-soft gaps refer to the difference between the actual, rational design of the technology (hard) and the

actuality of the social context – people, culture, politics, etc. – within which the system operates (soft).

These sorts of gaps are commonly cited in accounts of e-government failure in developing countries,

where ‘soft’ human issues that are not initially taken into account whilst designing a project result in

undesirable effects after implementation (Virkar, 2011). Hard-soft gaps thus may be seen as the outcome

of interactions played out primarily at the level of the project itself, between individuals and agencies

involved with the design and acceptance of the technology. Many scholars, such as Stanforth (2006), see

technology as just one of a number of heterogeneous socio-technical elements that must be considered

and managed during the design and implementation of a successful e-government project, whilst Madon

(2004) has discussed different sets of case studies which have revealed that numerous factors that have

allowed individuals in developing countries to access ICTs (and which depend on resources, skill-levels,

values, beliefs, and motivations, etc.) are often ignored. It may thus be inferred that a lack of training,

skills, and change management efforts would all affect rates of failure, as it is these factors that would

bridge the gap between the technology itself and the context within which it exits (Dada, 2006).

Private-Public Gaps

The next archetype put forward by Heeks (2003) is that of private-public gaps, which refers to the dif-

ference between organisations in the private and public sectors, and the mismatch that results when

technology meant for private organisations is used in the public sector without being adapted to suit

the role and aims of the adopting public organisation. A common problem is again the lack of highly

skilled professionals in the public sector, resulting primarily from uncompetitive rates of pay in that

sector as compared to the private sector (Ciborra& Navarra, 2005). The design of e-government projects


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is consequently outsourced to the private sector, resulting in a clash of values, objectives, culture, and

large design-actuality gaps. Public-private gaps are thus of particular relevance to the discussion which

follows in this chapter, as they generally arise out of games played at the level of the adopting govern-

ment agency, between the agency and its private sector counterparts, although it is not uncommon to

find interactions between public and private individuals on project committees having an impact on the

outcome of a project as well.

Country Context Gaps

The final archetype of failure defined by Heeks (2003) is the country context gap, or the gap that arises

when a system designed for one country is transferred into the reality of another. This is particularly true

for systems transferred between developed and developing countries, where designs for one may clash

with the actualities within the other. Country context gaps are, according to Dada (2006) closely related

to hard-soft gaps as they arise from, amongst other things, differences in technological infrastructure,

skill sets, education levels, and working cultures.The increased popularity of the tenants of deliberative

democracy is thought to be one such manifestation of this form of design-actuality gap (Svensson, 2007;

Svensson, 2008). Country-context gaps emerge chiefly as a result of games played by national, provincial

and international actors operating across borders. For instance, decisions to adopt or promote a certain

management style or value system, buy or sell a particular technology from a particular organisation or

country, or collaborate with particular government agencies in different parts of the world all stem from

games of international trade, aid, and diplomacy.

Heeks model is particularly useful given the large investments made by developing country govern-

ments in e-government systems and the large opportunity costs associated with their implementation

(Heeks, 2003). More particularly, the model encourages project planners to take a focused, holistic view

of problem solving; making them consider concurrently the technology at hand, the current circum-

stances, the impact of actors’ motivations and actions, and possible vested interests. It may be used both

as a predictive tool anticipating potential failings and heading them off at the initial stages, as well as

being used to diagnose problems during the execution of the project. The framework is thus a means of

evaluating outcome and problem solving strategies at all stages during the development of a project, and

not just to examine what went wrong in hindsight. However, when taken alone, it is only able to analyse

structural weaknesses in a project’s design but doesn’t on its own provide an adequate explanation of

the decision-making processes that led to such structural deficiencies in the first place.

Similarly, the strength of the Ecology of Games lies in its ability to identify and analyse the inter-

relationships between the different actors involved in the process of e-government system design and

adoption. On its own, the framework provides no insight into the consequences of this behaviour and its

impact on project outcome When used in combination therefore, as in this chapter, these two frameworksallow the researcher to not only identify and analyse patterns of behaviour within the case under study,

but also link decisions and actions to specific project outcomes.


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IDENTIFYING GAMES THAT IMPACT THE PLANNING AND UPTAKE OFINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN BUREAUCRACIES

From the games identified during the course of this author’s research, a four-fold taxonomy has been

developed which classifies and analyses behaviour depending on the level of actor interactions along four

different axes: the field of play, the key actors involved, the main objective(s) of the game under study and

the nature and/or spirit in which the game has been played. The four categories are elaborated on below:

1. Arena or Field of Play: Actor interactions may be classified according to the arena within which

they are played out. In other words, this classification – which has its roots in initial work done

by Vedel (1989) and Dutton (1992) – focuses on the reach and influence of actors within a given

context, and the impact of their actions (both direct and indirect) on project outcomes.

a. Project-Specific Games: Are generally played by individuals and groups of actors directly

involved with the case under study. Such interactions usually occur during the planning and

execution of a project and impact.

b. Organisation-Specific Games: Are played out within the department or organisation within

which the case study is based, involving not only actors directly concerned with the case study

but also others within the institution whose moves come to bear influence on the project at

hand.

c. City or Regional Level Games: Include those interactions between actors whose power or

reach extends to the level of the city or region within which the project is based, and who are

playing power games for relatively high stakes. The goals, moves and strategies chosen by

actors at this level may or may not have a direct link to the case study, however they come to

bear either a direct or indirect influence on its eventual outcome.

d. National Level Games: Involve players who have their eye on attaining some sort of national

prestige or who are influenced by other actors or discourses operating at the national level.

Here again, actors may or may not be directly attached to the project or organisation under

study.

e. International Level Games: Are played chiefly by actors or groups of actors possessing

international clout and/or aspirations. Games played at this level usually do not have a direct

bearing on the project under study, however, actors might indirectly influence outcomes by

attempting to gain power/prestige through adhering to popular trends, binding project plan-

ners to third-party conditonalities or merely by subscribing to certain schools of thought.

2. Key Actors Involved: Games may also be classified according to the key actors involved in each

interaction studied. This axis thus aims to study interactions within the context of the key players

– who they are and who they interact with.a. Interactions Internal to the Project Planning/Core Group: Includes any games being

played exclusively between constituent elements of the project planning committee or the

core group responsible for the design and execution of the project under study.

b. Core Project Group vs. Other Members of Implementing Department: Cover games

played between members of the core project committee and other individuals and/or groups

within the implementing department who are otherwise not directly involved on the project

at hand.


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c. Games within the Implementing Organisation: Are played out between groups and indi-

vidual actors who are members of the implementing organisation. Such interactions may or

may not be directly related to the ICT4D project, but their outcome would have an impact on

its eventual success or failure.

d. Department/Organisation vs. External Players: Cover interactions between the implementing

department/organisation acting in a unified, institutional capacity and other external players

such as the media, citizens and civil society organisations.

e. Games Played by External Actors: Which have little or no direct connection to the current

project, but which nonetheless have a significant impact on its eventual success or failure.

3. Actor Goals: A third way of classifying actor interactions is based on the goals that different actor

groups seek to attain by engaging with other players. Actors within each game are bound to have

multiple goals that motivate them to act in certain ways, and thus it is important when applying

this classification to identify the primary motivating factor behind each move.

a. Games of Power and Prestige: Involve moves to enable actors to gain or shore up their

individual power and prestige or those of their group.

b. Games to Maintain Status Quo: Are those interactions whereby players seek to maintain

the status quo. These games are generally played when actors perceive a threat to their current

position or status, and thus act to preserve their current standing in the hierarchy.

c. Games to Achieve Change: Are those interactions that attempt to change a current situation

or process within a department or organisation, primarily through the attainment of project

goals and objectives.

d. Games to Achieve Political and Policy Aims: Are those moves and strategies played by actors

to achieve certain political or policy aims which may or may not have a direct relationship or

bearing on the project under study.

e. Games to Further Ideology and/or Discourse: Comprise chiefly those games played by

actors who are generally driven by a particular ideology or discourse and wish to use their

political influence to impose their ideas on either the implementing organisation or on the

project planners themselves.

4. Nature of Game Play: The final axis against which games may be classified analyses the nature

of the political dynamic between the key actors within which the project was conceived and imple-

mented. In other words, this axis differentiates between positive and negative actors and the impact

of their actions on their sphere of influence.

a. Constructive Game Play: Includes altruistic and other positive moves, where competition

is seen to be constructive and controlled/restrained rivalry brings about positive results. Such

games are therefore win-win situations, and include all those moves that have a positive impact

on the adoption of new technologies within a development context.b. Destructive Game Play: Involves fierce rivalries and negative competition, resulting in zero-

sum game

Documents

Designing and Implementing E-Government Projects for Democracy and Social Change in India: Actors, Behaviours, Influences, And Fields of Play