A Sociology of Digital Government: How Has Citizens' Experience of the State Been Transformed?

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 13:00-14:45
Location: FSE036 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
WG10 Digital Sociology (host committee)

Language: English

In recent years, many countries around the world have been pursuing process of “digitalisation” of their governments and bureaucratic administration (Dunleavy et al. 2006, Margetts and Dunleavy, 2013). This process which has been promoted by a number of international institutions, has the stated aim of making the state more efficient while mending the gap between citizens and institutions. However, to date little attention has been paid to how this transformation of the state apparatus has practically impacted citizens’ relationship with the state, their everyday experience of and views on public institutions. This stems from the fact that, to date, the discourse of digital government, and the manifold recommendations made by various international institutions has not been accompanied by the development of a "sociology of digital government", exploring the concrete outcomes that the process of digital transformation has had on the life of citizens. Furthermore, there has been little discussion of the contradictions of this process and the way in which - while making public services more efficient for some citizens - digitalisation of government bureaucracy and public services may end up entrenching the marginalisation of others, exacerbating the effects of digital divide (Ragnedda and Muschert, 2013). To address this host of issues, this panel invites contributions analysing the ways in which citizens interact with and respond to digital services. It welcomes both country-specific case studies, and more general and theoretical interventions from different countries and world regions.
Session Organizer:
Paolo GERBAUDO, Industries Department, United Kingdom
Oral Presentations
Citizen Discourses Towards Internet Voting, a Multicountry Comparison
David DUENAS-CID, Kozminski University, Poland; Magdalena MUSIAŁ-KARG, Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland; Bogdan ROMANOV, University of Tartu, Estonia
The Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence in Service of Moroccan Citizens: Perspectives for Public Services
Ahmed Amine AMEGOUZ, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco; Anthony SIMONOFSKI, Université de Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium; Samir EL JAAFARI, UMI, Morocco; Abdelali IBRIZ, USMBA, Morocco
Reconstruction of Village Governance in Virtual Space: A Case Study from a Platform Perspective
Baoqing JIANG, China; Peng LU, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, China
Distributed Papers
Networked Counter-Power to the Automated State: The Recursive Politics of Data-Based Governance in Hong Kong
Dr. Tin-Yuet TING, PhD, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Transformation of Communication between Young Citizens and Local Self-Government in Social Networks: Case of Russia
Galina BANNYKH, Ural Federal University, Russian Federation; Galina SAVCHUK, Ural Federal University, Russian Federation; Sergei KULPIN, Ural Federal University, Russian Federation; Ruslan KURASHOV, Ural Federal University, Russian Federation
A Digital Papereality: Experiencing and Negotiating Welfare Surveillance
Lior VOLINZ, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Slovenia
Citizen-State Relationship: Examining the Role of Online Visibility
Muhammed ALAKITAN, University of Cambridge, Nigeria
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