Zombie politics

The Greek political system increasingly resembles something that is deemed dead yet still animated: a zombie. The sovereign debt crisis has been considered by many a fatal blow to the Greek political system. The country in order to secure the much needed economic growth would have to abandon its state-centred model of economic governance. As a result, many predicted, the Greek political system firmly intertwined with the state would not survive the shock. This is hardly the case

Rethinking sociomateriality: Information technologies and the possibility for imagination

This article explores how humans come into being with a technological world, that is, a world where information technologies are present in every aspect of human activities becoming internal to what it means to be human. Its empirical focus is on technological scenarios since they uniquely assemble both humans and non-humans into a coherent narrative prescribing what can be legitimately said and done within everyday practices. Their normative character allows a critical reworking of sociomateriality which brings to the fore how both norms and technological objects enable and constrain meaning within everyday practices. The idea of constitutive entanglement, central to sociomateriality, is articulated in more detail while its political repercussions are brought to the fore and examined in detail. As such, sociomaterial accounts acquire more depth as they can challenge the inherited languages of description of technological phenomena, show their historical character and experiment with the possibility of transcending them

The Interplay Of Ict Innovation With State Administrative Tradition: The Case Of The Greek Taxation Information System (taxis)

In recent years, there is an explicit link of ICT innovation with deep structural reforms in public administrations. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are viewed as enablers of state reform towards the establishment of a minimal, agile and accountable government apparatus. The concept of administrative tradition allows us to understand how structural, historical, institutional and behavioral elements shaping a country’s perception of proper public administration interact with ICT innovation. In this paper, we examine a specific administrative tradition, the Napoleonic, in its Greek variation. The properties of Greek administrative tradition are identified and analyzed. Their interaction with ICT innovation is studied in the case of TAXIS, the flagship information technology project of the Greek government in the mid 1990s. TAXIS’s implementation occurred in a period of conscious and systematic effort of the Greek polity to radically change its operations and become aligned to the political structures of its Western counterparts. Thus, there is an explicit link between ICT innovation and the need for state reform. Nevertheless, ICT innovation did not follow an independent path but was infused by elements of the Greek administrative tradition producing a number of interesting outcomes

On Greek public administration

The stagnation of reforms and the problematic implementation of austerity measures in Greece revealed a rather painful reality. The Greek government apparatus is not operating properly. Thus, the country is facing a double problem; the political system is reluctant to assume the cost of radical reform while public administration is incapable of implementing and monitoring the necessary policies. However, aphorisms on the backwardness of the Greek public sector need to give their place in a systematic analysis of the process which led to the current situation. The major manifestations of public sector inefficiency – overreliance to a legalistic paradigm of action, absence of standardisation in administrative procedures, inability to set, monitor and evaluate the implementation of specific policies – did not occur overnight. They are the outcomes of the gradual domination of an autonomous state apparatus by heavily politicised practices which eventually came to substitute core bureaucratic operations. As such they deserve further consideration

Seeing like a citizen: Understanding public views of biometrics

Despite its controversial history and the significant diffusion of biometrics from institutional settings such as border control and policing, to everyday use in commerce and personal devices, biometrics is now being repositioned as a neutral means to safeguard identity in the digital world. Given this proliferation of uses we argue that understanding perceptions of biometrics amongst ordinary citizens is necessary and long overdue. Situating our analysis in the wider context of the views of governmental and biometric industry experts, we deploy Q-methodology in combination with political discourse analysis to examine the range of positions that have crystallized in ordinary discourse on issues arising from the use of biometrics for identification. Our analysis analysis uncovers four distinctive configurations that put into question a simplistic trade-off between security and privacy that dominates government and industry discourse, and underlines the importance of going beyond a narrow view of technology ‘users’ to understand the political and social concerns that arise with and shape the uses of technology in contemporary societ

Public faces? A critical exploration of the diffusion of face recognition technologies in online social networks

In recent years, we have witnessed a rapid spread of biometric technologies from the security domain to commercial and social media applications. In this article, we critically explore the repercussions of this diffusion of face recognition to everyday contexts with an in-depth analysis of Facebook’s “tag suggestions” tool which first introduced the technology to on-line social networks. We use Nissenbaum’s framework of contextual integrity to show how the informational norms associated with biometrics in security and policing - their contexts of emergence - are grafted on-line social networks onto their context of iteration. Our analysis reveals a process that has inadvertently influenced the way users understand face recognition, precluding critical questioning of its wider use. It provides an important deepening of contextually-driven approaches to privacy by showing the process through which contexts are co-constitutive of informational norms. Citizens are also offered a critical tool for understanding the trajectory of biometrics and reflect on the data practices associated with the use of face recognition in social media and society at large

Cultivating the Installed Base: The Introduction of e-Prescription in Greece

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Voluntary work-related technology use during non-work time: a narrative synthesis of empirical research and research agenda

The internet and mobilisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have made non-manual work increasingly portable and remotely accessible. As a result, a considerable number of employees use their ICTs to engage in work-related tasks during designated non-work time, even without contractual obligation. However, existing research on such voluntary work-related ICT use remains fragmented and spread across disciplines. We conducted a narrative review of 56 studies to identify themes in existing research, synthesise the evidence base, as well as identify gaps in our understanding. We identify five themes: (1) Social-normative organisational context, (2) Job-related characteristics and work processes, (3) Person characteristics, (4) Designated non-work time and well-being, and (5) Empowerment/Enslavement Paradox. A conceptual model of voluntary ICT use is developed by integrating the identified themes with existing organisational research, outlining the relationships between the identified themes and voluntary ICT use. In the discussion, we emphasise the need for more conceptual clarity on voluntary ICT use and related constructs, and for the integration of different disciplines and methodological approaches to advance knowledge in the field. We further identify person-centred research as critical future avenue to explore different ICT user types. Additionally, more research into the mechanisms and moderating influences regarding voluntary ICT use and its outcomes is considered advisable to advance our knowledge on the Empowerment/Enslavement Paradox and its potential resolution. We conclude with preliminary implications to inform practice, addressing the need for employers to provide control over voluntary ICT use, as well as employees enacting this control