Web 2.0 and Iris Young - Civic Experiment

8/8/2019 Web 2.0 and Iris Young - Civic Experiment

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Web 2.0 and Iris Young:

A Civic Experiment in Inclusive Democracy in

Ireland

Paper for presentation at the Political Studies Association of Ireland conference

DIT Aungier Street, Dublin 8-10th October 2010

Investigators

Khurshid Ahmad, Dept. of Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin

Clodagh Harris, Dept. of Government, University College Cork

Vanessa Liston, Dept. of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin

Mark OToole, IT department, Kilkenny County Council


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Abstract

This paper presents the theoretical framework and research design of a civic experiment

with Kilkenny Borough Council. The research project tests the proposition that citizen

participation in sustainability policy development can be increased through the use ofsocio-political networking by local government. Our hypothesis rests on the claim that

social networking can facilitate greater personal contact with political parties and

representatives, support the development of social knowledge among citizens and enable

a transparent and accountable feedback process that enhances citizen trust and

engagement. The study extends the work of Iris Young on inclusive democracy and the

literature on political communication and policy formation.

The study is conducted as a civic experiment with Kilkenny County Council that involves

activating a social network and studying its effect on the development process of one

sustainability policy area. It aims to specifically: a) establish a comparative context of

citizen input to policy development b) activate a socio-political network and extract a

structural view of network content that will input to Council policy decision processes

and; c) analyse network behaviour and policy development process effects.

In this paper we present the theoretical framework of the research, outline how the study

contributes to current literature on political communication and deliberative democracy,

and explain the methods for evaluating the networks effects on citizen participation and

Council policy processes. Finally, we provide an overview of the tool, focusing on its

innovative aspects that have implications for enabling the realisation of Iris Youngs

vision of inclusive democracy.


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1 Introduction

A cornerstone of the discourse of sustainable society is citizen participation, a principle

repeated in the national strategies and development plans of the Irish government. Public

consultation is viewed as enabling ownership and legitimacy of the political process

hence supporting the effectiveness of policies targeting a sustainable future (Crozier,

2008; OECD, 2003).

Yet, despite the commitment of the Irish government, forms and methods of

citizen participation are characterised primarily by 1. face-to-face meetings1

or 2. citizen-

government question/answer/feedback (QAF) channels. While exceptions exist, such

participative models have shown weak effects on broad citizen participation and process

legitimacy, particularly in the process of policy development. Voter turnout and

participation rates are consistently low and citizens report estrangement, dissatisfaction

and lack of trust in government (Callanan, 2006; Liston & OLeary, 2009).

This proposed experiment extends a new literature in public participation in

decision making (Skelcher et al., 2005; Friedrich, 2006; Stoker, 2006) by engaging the

perspective of Iris Young on inclusive democracy. In theorizing the challenges of citizen

participation Young (2000) offers convincing arguments that current forms and methods

have limited effectiveness in engaging citizens because 1. the deliberative democracy

premise of consensus towards a common good is flawed and 2. an ideal deliberativeenvironment does not exist but is defined by structural inequality and cultural difference.

She proposes instead that as groups derive from relationally constituted structural

differentiations, participation should be re-interpreted away from notions of the common

good towards harnessing as a resource, differences in socially situated interests,

proposals, claims and expressions. Inclusion, she argues, enables information spread

across social groups leading to social knowledge of other positions, and prevents policy

processes being dominated by certain groups to the exclusion of minorities thereby

supporting the potential of sustainable policy outputs.

Adopting this perspective, this civic experiment aims to develop new

understandings of citizen participation moving from QAF channels to a process of

citizen-to-citizen-representative deliberation, the content and structural composition of

1These include Strategic Partnership Committees


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feed into decision-processes within local government. As such the proposed project is

directly relevant to the emerging practice and literature on public value management (see

Stoker, 2006; OFlynn, 2007) and political communication.

2 Civic Experiment

The experiment involves activating a socio-political networking site with

Kilkenny Borough Council and extracting content and sentiment from the network in a

usable form for Council. The experiment also involves establishing processes within

Council to enable use of citizen input and feedback on how such input was used.

The empirical investigation will focus on analysing change in: 1. Citizen

participation rates; 2. Political communication in terms of social inclusion and sentiment

patterns; 3. Deployment of network content, specifically how the output from network

deliberations are used in/influence the policy development process and; 4. The effects of

the network on citizen perceptions of local democracy. This data will be captured through

participant surveys on the three pillars outlined by Beetham (1996) accountability,

responsiveness and representativeness.

Data gathering and analysis methods include sentiment mining, social network

analysis, interviews, surveys and statistical analyses. The proposed research is intended

as a pilot in advance of a larger study on the effects of socio-political networking on

citizen, representatives and Council behaviour in the context of sustainability.

3 Theory and Context

3.1 Inclusive Democracy

Iris Young states that for policy outputs to be sustainable they must be oriented towards:

including the broadest possible extent of views from across society and; enablingdiscussion across citizens with differing views with the aim of understanding and

accommodating. She argues that the concept of deliberation and consensus towards a

common good often prevents minority inclusion because they extendalready

constituted institutions and practices to people not currently benefiting from them

enough, thereby expecting them to conform to hegemonic norms. This view is a


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radical departure from the literature on deliberative democracy as expounded by

Habermas (1989) and the Program for Better Government.

The rationale for adopting her theoretical perspective in preference to the

deliberative democracy model is based on findings from a wide empirical literature on

the limitations of current participation methods. Callanan argues that main difficulty

encountered in operating participative mechanisms in many countries has been ensuring

the inclusion of minority groups (Callanan, 2006; see also Beetham 1996, Cochrane

1996, Lowndes et al., 2001a, 2001b). With specific reference to Strategic Partnership

Committees within local government Callanan states, There are clear dangers that the

most marginalized in society are not heard through participatory mechanisms (2006,

p.915). Exclusion of minority groups has significant consequences for the development

of sustainable policies (Young, 2000).

3.2 Web 2.0 Communication for Civic Inclusion

Web 2.0 technology enables us to test Youngs theory on inclusive democracy and

sustainability policy development because of its ability to support instant communication

and knowledge sharing between citizens and government. It also aids in side-stepping the

socio-economic circumstances that affect an individuals speech and language use, hence

political inclusion and influence as argued by Young (2000)2. Specifically, the network

improves on current participation methods in the following ways:

A) Citizens / government deliberation & policy input

The proposed network enables three innovative approaches to citizen-citizen/citizen-

government participation: a) Citizens can deliberate, form and influence opinions on an

issue, and can collect in groups to deliberate and organise for lobbying; b)

Representatives and Council can engage directly in deliberation with citizens, observe

discussions and input knowledge to network discussions; c) network content can be

extracted and input directly to policy development processes using sentiment mining

technology.

2We acknowledge the point that use of ICT in itself excludes minorities. For this reason, we will

specifically create the conditions for ICT use by minorities in the experiment.


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B) Social knowledge enlargement

By a) extending deliberation time, space and reach, b) reducing cost of participation and

c) building on the dynamic of social networks (invite friends) the network enlarges the

possibilities for citizen inclusion in the political process. As such the network can allow

for increases in social knowledge as outlined by Young.

C) Responsiveness and Accountability

The network supports accountability in two ways. Firstly, it enables increased visibility

and connection with elected representatives. Secondly, it facilitates reporting on the use

of citizen input by Council. In this respect, by enabling a visual presentation of the range

of topics discussed by citizens and the proportion/relationship of sentiments expressed

across social groups, Council can transparently report on how this data was inputted

into policy decision processes and negotiations within Council.

D) Political equality

The network also provides a space for prospective representatives among the citizens to

garner constituent support. As such the network can enable the widening of the social

group from which politicians and public service leaders are drawn.

4 Methods

4.1 Phase 1

The goals of Phase 1 are to establish the comparative context for the study. This

phase will require collaborative research in the form of interviews and surveys among

Council officials, elected representatives and a sample of citizen groups. It will include

Analysis of submissions by citizens over the past five years for frequency, content

and diversity.

Interviews with Council management and Councillors on current forms and

methods of representation and citizen participation in local government.

Attending Council meetings to measure frequency of reference to citizen input.


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Interviewing a cross-section of social groups, including minority groups, to

examine determinants of participation.

4.2 Phase 2 - Implementation of Socio-political Network

4.2.1 Network Features

The second phase will focus on implementation of the network and decision processes.

This phase will be completed in collaboration with the Kilkenny Borough Council

research team. The network will be developed on an open-source platform, Drupal

Commons. The data output will be produced using sentiment mining technology. This

enables a summary of network content on keywords analysed by sentiment.

4.2.2 Council Processes

The success of the network for mobilising citizen-to-citizen engagement depends on a

number of success criteria that have been noted by authors engaged in democratic civic

experiments from the US to Kenya. Critical success criteria are: a) local authority

leadership is strongly behind the participative forum. This increases citizens confidence

that taking part would result in an opportunity to effect real change (Leighninger, 2009);

Citizens experience the ability to affect change (Finkel, 2002). The effect of positive

feedback from the democratic system is repeated in a wide literature on participatorydemocracy (Finkel, 2002; Bratton & Mattes, 2000); Citizens trust the motives and

commitments of the leadership and participative forum.

As a result, the implementation of the socio-political networking site will include

adaptations in processes within Council and among the elected representatives to enable

these success criteria to be realised.

These processes should facilitate Council to: a) use the network and interact with

citizens; b) gather data from the network; c) incorporate knowledge from the network to

input to decision processes on policy including Strategic Policy Meetings; and d) report

back and demonstrate clearly to the network on how knowledge from network and other

factors were incorporated to Council policy development processes.

At the end of this phase the following will be achieved.


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The activation of a socio-political network for the citizens of Kilkenny.

Activation of a sentiment analysis tool to enable extraction of data and

information from the network.

Process adaptation within Council and among representatives to include

network content into decision processes on policy and feedback to citizens.

Engagement of citizens, including minority groups, on the network.

Phase 3: Analyses and Results

This stage will involve analysing the activity on the network, its use by Council and

effect upon policy decision-processes. Specifically two areas will be studied, citizen-

citizen/Council communication and Council process.

4.3.1 Citizen-Citizen/Representative Interaction

(a) Citizen participation, preferences and preference change.

Citizen participation will be examined by monitoring the rate and range of

communication and effects on preferences as expressed through sentiments. Using

sentiment mining techniques and social network analysis we will examine whether

attitude convergence/divergence occurs during network deliberations. We will establish

(a) the range of issues addressed, (b) the rate and extent of sentiments expressed for each

of these issues, (c) whether socio-economic and cultural variables of a members profile

predict issue discussed and sentiment strength, (d) whether there is evidence of sentiment

change or inertia during interaction and (e) the structure of dialogue between

citizen/representative/members as indicated by content and direction of communication

vertical to representatives and Council and horizontal among citizens. Network

analysis will be situated in the literature on the political effects of groups and networks

(Roch, Scholz & McGraw, 2000; Downs, 1957; Mutz, 2002a, 200b; McClurg, 2003)

(b) Level of social inclusion

This factor will be measured by examining the rate and range of citizen activity by socio-

economic and cultural variables indicated in their member profile.


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(c) Citizen perceptions

Perceptions of responsiveness, representativeness and accountability through the

feedback mechanism will be captured using online participant surveys.

4.3.2 Council Processes

A comparative analysis will be completed on the extent to which citizen input is

mentioned in Ordinary, Electoral and Committee meetings. Analysis will require

quantitatively establishing source, frequency, content and range of citizen input during

the policy development process and content analysis on how meeting minutes reflect

citizen input. The frequency of use of the sentiment reports from the network will be

monitored and analysed with independent variables that have been shown in the literature

to affect the effectiveness of citizen input (e.g. elite attitudes).

We will also analyse frequency, coverage and responsiveness of Council feedback

to the network. Finally, we will survey representatives, Council management and citizens

to gather data on the effectiveness of the network and its output.

5 Research Outputs

The experiment provides: 1. a functioning socio-political network for Kilkenny Borough

Council and Kilkenny citizens and; 2. new processes within Council policy developmentand citizen engagement processes. As an outcome of the baseline study we expect to

contribute to the literature on how local level political representation in Ireland works.

Following the installation and active use of the network we expect that the data generated

will support our hypotheses derived from Youngs theory: The social network will

enable: 1. higher rates and broader reach of citizen participation; 2. greater satisfaction

with the responsiveness of the system and; 3. inter-group social learning. Analyses of

Council processes will show a demonstrable impact of the network on policy

development. These hypotheses we derive from Youngs theory are clear and falsifiable.

With this experiment we thus expect to provide a solid knowledge foundation

from which to advance the possibilities opened by Web 2.0 for citizen participation and

e-government in Ireland and beyond.


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Web 2.0 and Iris Young - Civic Experiment