Epidemic Response Coordination Networks in “Living Documents”

Response plans developed thoroughly are suggestive of a successful action, but there is a gap in the literature with respect to the way concerted efforts among organizations are planned and change during crises. Using organizational network data extracted from the South Korean government’s MERS response manuals, we examined the changes in the response coordination network planned during the epidemic’s distinct stages. The greatest difference in predicting tie formation was found in the networks planned before the event and revised during the outbreak. Local and governmental actors tend to form more ties consistently in the revised manuals. Two actors that are intended to transfer medical and/or personnel resources tend to form more ties across all stages. These findings suggest that transferring material and/or human resources are key activities in the epidemic response and planners tend to increase the connection of local and governmental actors over time

Intending the Unintended: The Act of Building Agent-based Models as a Regular Source of Knowledge Generation

Poverty is a complex issue that is rarely conducive to analysis in laboratory or field experiments. Effective interventions that aim to decrease or eliminate poverty require an understanding of the intricate web of associated social issues. The need for this increased comprehension necessitates the use of alternative robust means of analysis: one such being agent-based modelling. The strengths of agent-based modelling to disaggregate complex social behaviours and understand them are well known. However, while people have explored how the modelling process can prove to be fruitful, the usually unintended insight gained and the knowledge engendered during the model design process goes largely unnoticed. In this paper, we aspire to show precisely how the model building process is critical in leading to unintended knowledge generation for modellers by drawing from three US based examples where agent-based modelling was used to aid research into the effects of interventions that address poverty and human development through programs and issues facing low-income families. With these examples, we illustrate some of the means to harness new knowledge generated. In our discussion, we also highlight the advantageous nature of agent-based model design as an independent source of knowledge generation

Digital government and wicked problems: Solution or problem?

The theme of the 16th International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o 2015) - \u27\u27Digital Government and Wicked Problems\u27\u27 - drew attention to the increasingly complex global problems we are facing today. In the late 1960s, the term \u27\u27wicked problems\u27\u27 was coined to refer to societal and public planning problems that had no definitive solutions [1,2]. Many problems, such as those identified in the theme of the conference - climate change, urbanization, and inequality - often exhibit the characteristics of \u27\u27wickedness\u27\u27 in the sense that they are both difficult to define and solve. The selection of this theme for dg.o 2015 reflects the digital government research community\u27s ambition and dedication to achieve a degree of understanding necessary to address some of the most intractable of these problems with the aid of emerging technologies. This special issue includes seven of the best papers from the dg.o 2015 conference. In this editorial, we highlight the characteristics of \u27\u27wicked problems\u27\u27 briefly, and the way in which the term is relevant in digital government research. We then introduce the articles selected for this special issue. Lastly, we provide suggestions to foster future research that addresses the nature of \u27\u27wickedness\u27\u27 in digital government initiatives

Digital government and wicked problems

This editorial introduces three examples of innovative research from the 16th International Digital Government Research Conference (dg.o 2015). To position the contributions of these examples meaningfully, we first performed a brief bibliographic analysis of research articles in the knowledge domain of digital government. This analysis provided a detailed examination of the evolution of digital government research themes and helped us introduce the examples in this special issue to the research field. Specifically, the research selected contributes to the theme of “digital government and wicked problems” by examining people\u27s online political behavior, extracting citizens\u27 needs from massive quantities of text data, or engaging constituents across geographical boundaries. At the same time, the bibliographic analysis and research examples together led us to ask whether the research field is ready to adopt wicked problems as a central focus, as it appears that the field is only in the very early stages of understanding the importance of the theme. To facilitate the transition from the current research orientation of the field to the next stage, we provide several suggestions for directions in future research

Two Effective Causal Paths that Explain the Adoption of US State Environmental Justice Policy

Over two decades have passed since the federal policy on environmental justice (EO 12898) was issued. However, empirical evidence indicates that injustice persists and that US states vary in their adoption of the terms of the environmental justice (EJ) policy. Moreover, studies of the explanations for the variation in states’ adoption of EJ policy are rare and have yielded puzzling findings - e.g., environmental interest groups are not associated with states’ EJ policy adoption, or the severity of problems is associated inversely with their adoption. We examined the progress and variation in states’ EJ policy adoption as of 2005 using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Our analysis showed first that a strong environmental interest group presence, combined with high racial diversity and low problem severity, is sufficient for a high level of EJ policy adoption, especially in Western states. Second, when environmental interest group presence is weak, if it is combined, again, with high racial diversity and the presence of a more liberal state government, a high level of EJ policy adoption also occurs. This is observed in the East coast, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the USA. Environmental politics and policy research can benefit from a configurational approach, especially when there is no guiding theory on the conjunctional effects of key factors