Digital Government for a Digitally Inclusive Society Minitrack

Description

Aligned with the HICSS Digital Government Track theme, “Digital Government for a Better Society,” this mini-track centers on how digital government can promote inclusion and equity in the digital age, alongside challenges and pitfalls. By investigating how digital innovations, data governance, and civic participation intersect with issues of access, trust, and justice, this mini-track contributes directly to the understanding of how digital government can serve as both a driver and a reflection of societal well-being.

Governments at all levels are leveraging digital technologies to transform their engagement with citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders. Through social media, mobile applications, artificial intelligence, and other forms of digital solutions, digital government is reshaping public services (e.g., efficiency, accessibility), policymaking (e.g., data-driven, digitally-ready), government operations (e.g., infrastructure management, emergency response), and citizen engagement (e.g., transparency, crowdsourcing, mobilization).

As digital government initiatives expand and deepen, it is essential to critically examine not only the opportunities and barriers they create for citizens to connect with government, but also broader ethical concerns, diverse citizen responses, and the societal impacts of digital government innovations. Governments must ensure that digital pathways for service provision and engagement are accessible, user-friendly, secure, and inclusive for all citizens.

However, the public digital agenda is often hindered by significant disparities in access to digital government infrastructure, information, and services, as well as the ability to benefit from that access. Both can exacerbate existing social divides. While the number of citizens who can fully participate in an information society and benefit from it is increasing, many are left without the means or skills to do so. These divides must be addressed by the government to ensure opportunities for citizen engagement with government and associated resources and services.

These divides also create different forms of citizen action and social organization that remain important platforms for civic and socio-political engagement. Various forms of responses, including resistance, skepticism, and criticism, have emerged from groups of citizens, civil society organizations, and other actors. These responses may stem from concerns about privacy, surveillance, exclusion, algorithmic bias, or the erosion of traditional forms of civic participation. Understanding these responses and their dynamics is crucial for developing more inclusive, responsive, and accountable digital government practices.

Topics

This mini-track invites authors to explore different opportunities, challenges, and paths leading from digital government to a digitally inclusive society. We welcome contributions, including but not limited to the following topics:

• Supporting digital efforts to engage unserved or underserved populations
• The role of digital literacy in the use or non-use of online government services
• Digital inclusion capabilities and strategies of the civil society actors
• Digital government access for people with perceptual, motor, or cognitive disabilities
• Government role in the development and adoption of digital accessibility standards
• The role of community-based organizations or anchor institutions (e.g., public libraries, non-government organizations) in fostering digital engagement
• Development and/or implementation of statutes, regulations, or policies related to digital engagement
• Developments in case law and policy related to digital engagement
• Trends in comparative or international law related to digital inclusion
• Trust in institutions vs. the use of digital government by diverse populations
• The impact of digitalized voting on citizen involvement in elections

Minitrack Leaders

Tin-Yuet Ting is an Associate Professor and Panel Chair of Sociology and Anthropology in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and his BA and MPhil from the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Ting’s research lies at the intersections of mobile social media, data technology, platform creative economy, and techno-politics. Funded by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, among others, his major research projects examine the (trans)formation of networked public and connective action in contemporary mobile and datafied settings. His other research, also funded by RGC, investigates the uneven and unequal pathways to digital careers in the platform creative economy. Prof. Ting received the Joshua Feigenbaum Award from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, USA; the Early Career Grant Award from the RGC, Hong Kong SAR; and the Advance HE Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom. Prof. Ting currently sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Information Society and is a Board Member of the Research Committee on Futures Research of the International Sociological Association. He was the Secretary-Treasurer to the Research Committee on Futures Research of the International Sociological Association from 2018 to 2023, and the Secretary to the Hong Kong Sociology Association at the 11th Council from 2018 to 2020 and the 12th Council from 2020 to 2022.

Anna Domaradzka is a sociologist, an Associate Professor and Director at the Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw. She leads a Civil City Lab, that carries out research for the co-creation of better, democratic, and wisely governed cities. The team investigates the consequences of digitalization and smart innovations in the context of urban life, with particular interest in how technology can influence the implementation of the principles of democracy, equality, and social justice expressed by the ‘right to the city’ concept. Anna Domaradzka specializes in intersectional and international comparative research in the areas of urban sociology, civil society and social movements, digital sociology and gender studies. She is engaged in several international projects concerning urban governance and planning, including Right to the smart city: the impact of new technologies on quality of life, social relations and urban policy (PI, Polish National Science Centre), EuPOLIS: Integrated NBS-based Urban Planning Methodology for Enhancing the Health and Well-being of Citizens (PI, H2020), and HEART: HEAlthier Cities through Blue-Green Regenerative Technologies (PI, H2020). She’s a member of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) Board of Directors, and Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change (RC48) of International Sociological Association (ISA)

Tomasz Janowski is the Head of the Department of Informatics in Management at Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland. Previously, he founded and led digital government program at the United Nations University in Macau (2004-2014), was the founding head of the UNU Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance in Portugal (2014-2016), Co-Editor-in-Chief of Government Information Quarterly (2015-2024), and founder and coordinator of the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (2007-2017). He led many projects in developing and post-conflict countries,
served as an expert for CTO, European Commission, IADB, ITU, OSCE, UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank, etc. and other international organizations, and published widely on the topics of digital government, sustainable digital transformation, and digital transformation for sustainability.