The Uptake of e-Government in Switzerland: An Improbable Mismatch?

The objective of this PhD project consists in the analysis of drivers of and barriers to e-Government development in Switzerland and in the assessment of the utility of this specific type of public innovation for the Swiss public administration. Using a mixed-method approach that combines semistructured interviews and an expert survey, this research provides explanations related to the comparatively low ranking of the country in the matter of e-Government. The Swiss case study is here classified as a deviant one; the outcome in the matter of e-Government does not correspond to the background conditions that characterise the Swiss context. The findings show that the key factors that impact on the uptake of e-Government projects are related to organisational culture in the Swiss public administrations and to the lack of cooperation structures between different departments and levels of government. The instalment of a more innovation-friendly culture would lead to more openness toward e-Government and to the empowerment of the Swiss public sector in regard to public innovation. Due to the division of competencies defined by the Swiss federalist structures, the creation of a community that would allow for sharing innovative ideas seems to constitute the key to more cooperation and learning in the framework of e-Government projects

Open Data and Transparency: Opportunities and Challenges in the Swiss Context

Transparency is today considered as a key feature of good governance. Almost undisputed, the concept has gained importance in both academic and practitioners’ circles due to its strong intrinsic and/or instrumental value. Recent years have seen the emergence of the open-data movement and its growing impact on government policies. Nevertheless, evidence related to impacts on transparency remains fragmented. This study aims to contribute to the field of research on transparency and open data by providing a conceptual clarification and by showing how both concepts are related and perceived in the Swiss public administration. This allows avoiding further confusion and better understanding the relation between the two notions. Moreover, this contribution also explores the implementation of the open-data logic in Switzerland. Although it does not participate in the Open Government Partnership, an international platform of 75 governments committed to making their activities more transparent, the country launched the federal Open Government Data project in 2015 with the aim of establishing an open-data culture within the administration. However, implementation of the open-data logic has been rather halting so far. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with civil servants in Switzerland, this contribution identifies four main types of barriers that impact on the uptake of open data in Switzerland: cultural, institutional, individual and economic

A computer science and robotics integration model for primary school: evaluation of a large-scale in-service K-4 teacher-training program

Integrating computer science (CS) into school curricula has become a worldwide preoccupation. Therefore, we present a CS and Robotics integration model and its validation through a large-scale pilot study in the administrative region of the Canton Vaud in Switzerland. Approximately 350 primary school teachers followed a mandatory CS continuing professional development program (CPD) of adapted format with a curriculum scaffolded by instruction modality. This included CS Unplugged activities that aim to teach CS concepts without the use of screens, and Robotics Unplugged activities that employed physical robots, without screens, to learn about robotics and CS concepts. Teachers evaluated positively the CPD and their representation of CS improved. Voluntary adoption rates reached 97% during the CPD and 80% the following year. These results combined with the underpinning literature support the generalisability of the model to other contexts