Between Grassroots and the Hierarchy: Lessons Learned from the Design of a Public Services Directory

Andy Dow, Rob Comber, John Vines

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    31 Citations (Scopus)
    20 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    There is a growing interest in HCI research studying technology for citizen engagement in civic issues. We are now seeing issues around technologies for empowerment and participation, long discussed in HCI literature, appropriated and formalised in government legislation. In the UK, recent reforms stipulate that community-based service information should be published in continuously updated, collaboratively designed and maintained, online platforms. We report on a qualitative study where we worked with stakeholders involved in the collaborative design, development and implementation of such a platform. Our findings highlight tensions between the grassroots desire to innovate and local governments’ rigid compliance with statutory obligation. We pose a series of challenges and opportunities for HCI researchers engaged in the design of civic technologies to consider going forward, addressing issues of engagement in policy, measures of participation and tools for enabling participatory processes in public institutions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'18)
    PublisherACM
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450356206
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Apr 2018

    Keywords

    • Civic technologies
    • public services
    • service directories
    • civic engagement
    • digital civics
    • qualitative research

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Between Grassroots and the Hierarchy: Lessons Learned from the Design of a Public Services Directory'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this