INTERNET E PARTICIPAÇÃO: O CASO DO ORÇAMENTO PARTICIPATIVO DIGITAL DE BELO HORIZONTE

This research aims at investigating the social representations in public participation decision-making using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). The Belo Horizonte City Hall used ICT for the first time in 2006, in the Digital Participatory Budget (OP-Digital). It was a choice made by the population of the implementation of public works for the next two years. The OP-Digital was applied again in 2008 and 2011, but with a lower participation than its first edition. We performed this study to understand the use of Internet by citizens in public decision making and to explain the decline of popular participation. The methodological approach is based in social representations theory and in the critical discourse analysis of 101 texts - from the press and from public agencies or government representatives. Our results suggest that current political strategies were not fully exploiting the potential for interaction and collective construction offered by the Internet, trivializing it. This may be one of the reasons of lower participation

From the Blogosphere into Real Politics: The Use of ICT by the Five Star Movement

Research on ICT and the public discourse often focuses on how ICT can be used to increase citizen participation in political decision-making processes. The Italian Five Star Movement (5SM) represents a novel approach to using ICT to include citizens, and a big challenge for the traditional political actors. The 5SM was initiated outside the established political systems, with the use of Internet tools as cornerstones to promote political actions based on the directly expressed will of citizens. In this paper, based on an exploratory case study approach and informed by the introduction of E-Democracy models, we investigate the role of ICT in various phases of the 5SM, from its birth through the current stage. The focus here is on the transformation from a protest organisation outside the established political processes to being the second most voted party within the Italian parliament

Conceptual models of urban environmental information systems - toward improved information provision

Cities are the hub of European society - for over a millennium, they are the locus of social, political and economic development. As the core of intensive and creative human activity, they are also the place where the environmental externalities that accompany rapid development are most visible. The environmental consequences of urban development have been recognised long ago, as in the case of London, where in 1388 legislation was introduced to control pollutant emissions (Lowenthal, 1990). Similar historical environmental regulations can be demonstrated for many cities in Europe. However, while for most of history those who govern the city (be it the sovereign, city elders or local government) where responsible for the control, mitigation and management of the common environment in the city, the last 30 years are a period of profound change. This is due to the trend toward improved participation in environmental decision making . a more inclusive and open approach to decisions that deal with the city commons. This change did not occurre overnight but rather gradually. For example, in the United Kingdom, it was the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 which introduced public scrutiny to changes in the urban form (Rydin, 1998), or the development of public involvement in environmental impact assessment of urban projects as developed in many countries throughout the developed world during the 1970s and 1980s (Gilpin 1995). These changes accelerate within the last three decades, and especially since the publication of .Our Common Future. (WCED and Brundtland 1987), the acceptance of the .Sustainable Development. principles and the Rio conference. A quiet (mini) revolution happened in Europe not long ago, toward the end of 1998 when the members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) signed the .Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. - the Aarhus Convention (UN/ECE 1998). The convention is expected to come into force by the end of 2001, and calls the governments and public authorities to open up access to environmental information as a means to improve public participation in environmental decision making and awareness of environmental issues (UN/ECE, 1998). However, these declarations on the value and importance of environmental information do not match our level of understanding on the role of environmental information in decision making processes, and especially on the role of information in improving awareness and participation. Therefore, it is useful to take a step back, and to try and evaluate how environmental information and access to it and its use support public involvement in such processes. This paper is aimed to offer a framework that can assist us in the analytical process of understanding environmental information use. It focuses on public access and assumes that environmental information will be delivered to the public through the Internet. Such assumption is based on the current trend within public authorities is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major delivery medium and it seems that it will become more so in the near future (OECD 2000). The framework which this paper presents, is based on Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) study which unpacked some of the core issues relating to public access and use of environmental information (Haklay, 2001). Although the aim here is not to discuss the merits of SSM, but to focus on the conceptual models, some introduction to the techniques that are used here is needed. Therefore, the following section opens with introduction to SSM and its techniques. The core of the paper is dedicated to the development of conceptual models. After presenting the conceptual models, some conclusions about these models and their applications are drown

The influence of information and communication technologies on public participation in urban water governance: A review of place-based research

Public participation is a central topic in urban water governance. With the spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), urban water governance has undergone prominent changes, including the process and outcomes of public participation. This paper aims to systematically review existing scientific and grey literature on the use of ICT to facilitate public participation in urban water governance. Based on a search in Google Scholar, we have collected 33 published texts and discerned 32 case studies, which we analysed according to the Cochrane systematic review methodology. We found that ICT tools allow many citizens to be better informed and co-produce water services with a government. Furthermore, ICT tools have the potential to help in efficiency and effectiveness of urban water service provision. However, such tools provide few opportunities for higher modes of discussion and deliberation, and grant limited authority to participants to influence decision-making processes. This finding raises concerns about the unwarranted optimism of “digital democracy” proponents in the urban water sector. Public participation at the end of the day is political by nature, which cannot be cancelled out by ICT tools alone

Geospatial technologies for public participation: better decisions for smarter cities?

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.In recent years society has undergone a process of modernization and with it, there has been increased citizen participation in decision-making and public policy development. This is due to, in part, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) together with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the development of channels of participation. This rapprochement between citizens and institutions through technology, has encouraged the development and evolution of the smart city concept in a broad sense and smart campus, applied to the university context, as test area. The goal of this thesis is study the relation between the three components of a smart city (human, institution, technology) through the introduction of an improvement in the technology component that allows interrelate the human and institutional component in a closer way, and analyze its potential impact on them. To this end, public participation has been enabled at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) by implementing a Web mapping application that, on the one hand allows users to report campus incidents (illegally parked vehicles, accumulation of garbage, etc.) in a more accessible way to the administrative institution of the campus, and on the other hand allows to this institution to receive the incidents in a structured and organized visually way, useful for decision-making regarding the management of campus resources

Participatory governance in smart cities: The urbanAPI case study

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This paper presents some results from an EU FP7 RTD project urbanAPI, in which three ICT applications target different aspects of participatory urban governance. The 3D Scenario Creator allows urban planners to visualise urban development proposals in three dimensions, share them with different stakeholders and obtain their feedback. The Mobility Explorer allows urban land use and transport planners to visualise and analyse population distribution and mobility patterns in the city. Finally, the Urban Development Simulator simulates socio-economic activity in response to alternative planning scenarios. These urbanAPI ICT applications are implemented in four pilot cities; Vienna (Austria), Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), Bologna (Italy) and Ruse (Bulgaria), and evaluated with respect to their various requirements. Results show that the applications are useful tools, enhancing spatial planning assessements, and enabling public participation, communicating proposed plans to different stakeholders and identifying key development issues which can provide crucial inputs in planning and decision making processes

From the Blogosphere into Real Politics: The Use of ICT by the Five Star Movement

Abstract. Research on ICT and the public discourse often focuses on how ICT can be used to increase citizen participation in political decision-making processes. The Italian Five Star Movement (5SM) represents a novel approach to using ICT to include citizens, and a big challenge for the traditional political actors. The 5SM was initiated outside the established political systems, with the use of Internet tools as cornerstones to promote political actions based on the directly expressed will of citizens. In this paper, based on an exploratory case study approach and informed by the introduction of E-Democracy models, we investigate the role of ICT in various phases of the 5SM, from its birth through the current stage. The focus here is on the transformation from a protest organisation outside the established political processes to being the second most voted party within the Italian parliament

ESTABLISHING PUBLIC CONSENSUS THROUGH DEVELOPING SPATIAL MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM TOWARDS SMART GOVERNANCE IN MANAGING CITYSCAPE PLANNING

The rapid development of information technology leads to the changes of the urban management system demanding the utilization of the smart city concept which aims to provide an environment for the community that is efficient, sustainable and secure, with the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technology). This paper utilized smart governance concept as one aspect of a smart city to improve and develop community participation in the visual quality control of urban spaces that meet the social aspects, economic efficiency and biological health of the community through visual quality evaluation activities on city space corridors. The development of spatial multimedia support system is one of the current development in urban planning that associated with public engagement. The objective of the study is to develop a scenario of the 3D spatial multimedia system as a Decision Planning Support System for structuring street corridor landscape based on 3D Interactive Simulation System. Through the scenario of interactivity development, 3D visualization in the virtual environment is expected to be efficient as well as supporting the development of the effectiveness of decision-making system in the evaluation of visual comfort quality in the streetscape

The use of Geographic Information Systems in the participatory management of a big city. Case study of Gdynia

This paper examines the way of including society in decisionmaking processes within cities in the context of the ICT sector development and the usage of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). With universal access to information and increased possibilities of expression and gathering society’s opinion, it creates new forms of democracy that are conducive to participatory management especially in urban units. One of the tools used by the municipal government for the realization of the idea of participation is the Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS). In the first section of the text author focuses on the theoretical framework of social participation processes. Both on the processes of socio-economic transformation as well as on the legal conditions for participation in Poland. Afterwards, the author explains the idea of PPGIS and possibilities of its use in cities. Next section applies to a case study of Gdynia referring earlier theoretical considerations to specific urban practice. There has been described geosurveys technique that was carried out in the city. The text outlines the way of its implementation and its results in the context of the decision and policy-making processes in the big cities on the example of Gdynia. These considerations fit into the theme of creating the information society in the processes of city management, using participatory methods of Geographical Information Systems