Call for Papers: Special Issue on "Users and uses of electronic governance"

Website: http://www.inderscience.com/ijeg 

Guest Editors

Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik
Maison Française d’Oxford
e-mail: stephanie.wojcik@politics.ox.ac.uk

Mr. Giles Moss
New College, Oxford
e-mail:
giles.moss@new.oxford.ac.uk 

The potential benefits of e-government and e-democracy, from improved public service delivery to new opportunities for citizenship participation, all presuppose the role, competence and engagement of citizens as users. E-governance technologies and practices are designed with different uses in mind, and the user may be imagined and cast in numerous ways: as active citizens, consumers, workers, members of particular social groups, and so on. Beyond the question of Internet access and ‘the digital divide’, any beneficial effects of e-governance are contingent on the motivations and prior expectations of users, and their experience and actual use of e-governance technologies. User’s experiences are likely to be shaped by their perceptions of e-governance, including, inter alia, confidence in government, other political actors, and in the technology itself.

Much research on e-government and e-democracy focuses on the supply side. Research would benefit from placing analytical attention on the users and concrete uses of e-governance technologies. In this special issue, we welcome original unpublished papers on how to conceptualize ‘the user’ in studies of e-governance, and research on users’ expectations and motivations, competencies and know-how, and actual experience and use of e-governance. Contributions may refer to a range of ‘types’ of e-governance, at any scale and institutional level (international, national, regional or local). Research papers may be either qualitative or quantitative in approach, and come from any disciplinary or inter-disciplinary perspective.

Subject Coverage
Contributions to the special issue may address, but are not exclusively limited to, any of the following topics concerning the ‘users and uses of electronic governance’:
- The prior assumptions that developers and designers of e-governance technologies have about users and uses, and how e-governance configures and privileges particular forms of use;
- The motivations, prior expectations and perceptions of the users of e-governance;
- Users’ actual experiences of e-governance systems, including, for instance, questions of usability and accessibility, and any unintended forms and consequences of use;
- The role of e-governance technologies and practices in the everyday life of citizens;
- Uses and perceptions of e-governance across different social groups and cultural contexts;
- Influence of (user or text-based) interactivity on the user.

Notes for Intending Authors
Submitted papers should not have been previously published or be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
All papers are refereed through a double blind process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the IJEG Submission of Papers web-page.
All papers must be submitted online through the IJEG On-line Submissions System. If you experience any problems submitting your paper online, please contact submissions@inderscience.com, describing the exact problem you experience. Please include in your email the title of the Journal.

Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission: June 30, 2008
Notification of acceptance / rejection: September 15, 2008
Final (camera-ready) papers submission: October 20, 2008
The special issue will be published in early 2009.

IJEG Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Panagiotis Georgiadis
University of Athens, E-Government Laboratory   IJEG

Executive Editor
Prof. Dimitris Gouscos
University of Athens, Department of Communication and Media Studies