E-democracy and sociopolitical digital interactions: analysing co-creation in public sector innovation

Abstract

The general objective of this study consisted of building an integrated background among e-democracy, sociopolitical digital interactions and public sector innovations. In order to understand the possible relations between these concepts, this study was structured on the search for answers to the following guiding question: What connections can be established among the democratic process of sociopolitical digital interactions and the generation of public sector collaborative innovations? The following specific objectives guided the conduction of this Master‘s thesis: a) To map, through a systematic literature review, the academic production about e-democracy; b) To propose a conceptual framework for analysis of the sociopolitical digital interactions (SDI); c) To verify, in the context of the Brazilian federal government, the statistical validity of a theoretical model of public sector collaborative innovation. Considering that the generation of public values, through collaborative approaches may represent a structuring factor for a dialogical process of public policy improvement, the relevance of this study can be seen, a study which proposes conceptual tools for analysis, improvement and design for such processes. The three steps in the conduction of this study are described as follows: The first stage of the research consisted of a systematic literature review of e-democracy. The first article entitled: ―A Systematic Review of E-democracy‖ aimed to explore and systematize the academic production and concepts related to the theme. The second stage consisted of an investigation into the impact of the emergent Information and Communication Technologies, specifically the Web 2.0, on the digital interactions between the Brazilian government and citizens. In this paper, entitled ―Sociopolitical Digital Interactions‘ Maturity: Analyzing the Brazilian States‖ a conceptual framework was proposed called Sociopolitical Digital Interactions Maturity (SDIM) which was qualitatively validated through its use to assess the current stage of maturity of these interactions through the websites of the 27 Brazilian states. The third stage consisted of a quantitative study, called ―Collaborative Innovation in the Public Sector: A case of the Brazilian Federal Government‖ whose focus was centered on the collective approach of volunteer collaboration likely to be used for the generation of public sector innovations. The connection between these three papers was based on the idea that in the virtual environment, government and society establish democratic processes of sociopolitical digital interactions, capable to instrumentalize the generation of public sector innovations.