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Project data
Team:
- Herbert Kubicek
- Rebecca Romppel
Partner:
Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA)
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Strohgasse 45, A-1030 Vienna (Austria)
Department of Accounting and Finance
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
University of Zaragoza
Gran Vía, 2 50005 Zaragoza (Spain)
Funding body:
Duration:
01.06.2009 - 31.05.2012
Contact person
e2democracy - Comparative Assessment of E-participation in the Context of Sustainable Developement and Climate Change
In this project, which is funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and further national research funding organizations in Austria and Spain, we will investigate the impact of electronic compared to traditional "offline" citizen participation exemplified by the participation of citizens in the field of climate change. The aim is to find out what the added value of electronic participation is compared to traditional participation and to show how sustainable participation as such is by regularly measuring the improvement achieved by participation by means of so-called CO2 calculators during a period of two years.
The Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) together with research institutions in Austria and Spain is preparing an international comparative study on the systematic and comprehensive evaluation of quality and impact of electronic citizen participation. To ensure comparability of subject and target groups, we will monitor three cities in each country, which actively engage in climate protection by involving citizens and business in their efforts. In this project, we will especially investigate participation processes dealing with the avoidance of unnecessary energy consumption and better mobility with less traffic.
CO2 reduction by energy saving, changing nutrition and consumption behaviour and by ecology-minded mobility behaviour is only possible with the active involvement of citizens and business. Local participative processes with these actors are indispensable, if the issue of climate protection is to be addressed seriously.
But citizen participation has not yet become a matter of course in local climate protection programmes. It has to be activated and cultivated. But the effects that can be achieved are disputable and have not yet been researched.
This is the focus of the research project. Concerning problems of electronic participation, experienced researchers of different disciplines combine their know-how on the evaluation of the usability of electronic services, the assessment of the content quality in a forum and the representative survey on attitudes and behaviour, in order to identify quality and impact of electronic participation offers as compared to traditional offline offers carried out in parallel.
Besides various forms of civic engagement, a certain kind of participation will be compared in all participating cities: A panel with citizens and businesses based on a contract with the local government on energy saving measures and CO2 reduction, which will be regularly checked by data collection.
The basic idea is that climate protection policy can only be successful if not only constructional and technical measures are taken, but also the behaviour is changed. Instead of shifting the responsibility from citizens/consumers to businesses and to administration/local government and back, a kind of local contract might lead to the desired results. With this contract, the three groups commit themselves to take all the measures they can to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission in a verifiable way that is transparent for all participants.
This verification will be carried out online and offline by regularly entering the data in the CO2 calculator and comparing them with the energy consumption data. The aim is to use smart metering, which is currently being tested nationwide by the energy supply companies. Besides the transparent monitoring, the panels are accompanied by information on saving possibilities, online forums as well as public meetings for the exchange of experiences.
Publications belonging to this project
Kubicek, Herbert; Cimander, Ralf; Rasmussen, Cornelis; Grocholl, Martin; Nottelmann, Enno (2010) Bremerinnen und Bremer sind bereit beim Klimaschutz mitzuhelfen Pressekonferenz, 3. Februar 2010, Bremen:
Kubicek, Herbert; Aichholzer, Georg; Allhutter, Doris; Cimander, Ralf; Pina, Vicente; Strauß, Stefan; Torres, Lourdes (2010) Comparative Evaluation of the Impact of E-Participation in Local Climate Change Policy Programs in: Wimmer et. al. (2010): Electronic Government and Electronic Participation. Joint Proceedings of Ongoing Research and Projects of IFIP EGOV and ePart 2010
in: Wimmer et. al.,
Lausanne:
Trauner,
377-382.
Konferenz: ePart 2010
Aichholzer, Georg; Kubicek, Herbert; Cimander, Ralf; ... (2011) E-participation in local government sustainability policy
in: Marijn Janssen,Ann Macintosh, Hans J. Scholl, Efthimios Tambouris, Maria A. Wimmer, Yao-Hua Tan,
Delft, The Netherlands:
Trauner,
417-421.
Konferenz: IFIP EGOV and ePart 2011
Cimander, Ralf; Rust, Ina (2011) Will citizen participation contribute to climate protection?
- Quality and effects of (e-) participation in the area of climate change
Hamburg:
Konferenz: Sustainable Consumption - Towards Action and Impact
Cimander, Ralf (2012) Bremen kann mehr Klimaschutz! - (vorläufige) Abschlussergebnisse des Bürgerpanels zum Klimaschutz in Bremen Abschlussfest für Panelisten, 26. April 2012, Bremen:
Kubicek, Herbert (2012) Bürgerbeteiligung im Format 2 x 2: Einmal online bringt es nicht, sondern erst zwei Stufen auf zwei Wegen
Erster Bericht über zwei gelungene Beteiigungsprojekte im Rahmen des DFG-/ESF Projekts e2democracy.
Zeitschrift: Innovative Verwaltung
Kubicek, Herbert; Cimander, Ralf (2013) Wie kann man den Impact von Bürgerbeteiligung valide bestimmen? Erfahrungen aus einem international vergleichenden Projekt im Bereich des Klimaschutzes.
Zeitschrift: Planung-neu-denken