Virtual Special Issue: The Digital Citizen? Navigating Different Roles of Citizens in the Digital Transformation of the Public Sector
Digital transformation can manifest in different loci and forms, creating opportunities and challenges for public sector management. The International Journal of Public Sector Management (IJPSM) has devoted considerable attention to digital transformation, encouraging authors to shed light on the characteristics that make this phenomenon unique in the public sector. Often, far from adopting an optimistic view, critical positions are taken. This special issue brings together five papers published in IJPSM that aim to contextualise how digital transformation initiatives affect and potentially change the relationship between the public sector and citizens.
(1) Zavaratto and Brainard (2019) identify several issues of current social media use by public sector organisations in targeting young citizens. They propose a framework that seeks to use social media as a site for fostering meaningful micro-encounters. This is achieved through accounting for the emotional attachment that young citizens seek in online engagement. Such a strategy elicits information and facilitates dialogue, interaction and feedback. With this, public values of openness, trust and democratic exchange are promoted. Finally, they suggest measures of success such as user engagement and sentiment analysis. Extending the scope, the authors conclude that any generation could benefit from a more open and inclusive use of social media platforms.
(2) In their study, Jalonen et al. (2021) argue that social media can constitute a medium through which inaccessible citizens can be reached. Their study considers the potential of online conversations by citizens from hard-to-reach groups for developing public services, using a co-creation lens. Data from a Finnish online forum for youths are analysed by combining machine learning and discourse analysis techniques. The study, first, extends the common assumption that during co-creation value is created at the nexus of interaction, instead offering a new perspective termed ‘passive participation’. Second, the study outlines a methodology to identify information from digital stories for the creation or improvement of services.
(3) Schmidthuber et al. (2019) evaluate open government initiatives, such as online platforms for citizensourcing. They examine the relationship between platform participation and perceived outcomes of open government, as perceived by the users. They find that active platform usage positively relates to several outcomes, such as improved information flow, increased trust in and satisfaction with local government. In contrast, repetitive participation does not significantly relate to users’ outcome evaluation.
(4) The study by Santomalazza et al. (forthcoming) focuses on participatory budgeting in the digital realm. The authors first discuss conceptually how the five phases of budgeting could be transformed through the use of digital tools. Subsequently a qualitative case study on digital participatory budgeting in Rome is conducted. They find that the potential for interactive digital tools is so far overlooked, failing to enhance citizen participation in the deliberation and evaluation and monitoring phases.
(5) Finally, the study by Patergiannaki and Pollalis (2024) is interested in how municipalities perform in terms of perceived quality of offered digital services and what factors influence perceived quality in the eyes of citizens. The results reveal that, first, the perceived attractiveness of online city portals, their perceived usefulness and the awareness about their functions positively influence citizens’ behavioural intentions toward the use of digital municipal services. Second, interestingly, the perceived ease of use of the portal negatively impacts citizens’ use intentions. As expected, respondents’ intentions to use the portal are lower with low digital literacy skills.
From an overarching perspective, the articles carve out three distinct roles of citizens which consequently guide the actions of public sector organisations in the digital sphere. First, citizens can be engaged as co-creators and active participants that provide input for governmental action, i.e. in digital participatory budgeting (Santomalazza et al. forthcoming) or on online platforms for citizensourcing (Schmidthuber et al. 2019). Second, citizens from various backgrounds can be mobilized as passive participators offering digital input to public sector organisations, for instance, through social media (Jalonen et al 2021; Zavaratto and Brainard 2019). Third, citizens can be the recipients of digital services that are provided through service provision platforms and thereby engage with the output of public sector organisations (Patergiannaki and Pollalis 2024).
Future research in IJPSM and beyond might build on these insights on how state-citizen relationships may be altered during digital transformation. It could, for instance, address questions of the blurring or layering of these roles of citizens across different policy areas or employed technologies. In so doing, research needs to shed light both on the bright and dark sides of digital transformation.
Dr Tobias Polzer, WU Vienna, Austria, [email protected]
Jakob Kühler, University of Potsdam, Germany and WU Vienna, Austria, [email protected]
The articles listed below are freely accessible from 24th March to 24th April 2025:
Zavattaro, S. M., & Brainard, L. A. (2019). Social media as micro-encounters. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 32(5), 562-580. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-02-2018-0059
Jalonen, H., Kokkola, J., Laihonen, H., Kirjavainen, H., Kaartemo, V., & Vähämaa, M. (2021). Reaching hard-to-reach people through digital means – Citizens as initiators of co-creation in public services. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 34(7), 799-816. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-01-2021-0008
Schmidthuber, L., Stütz, S., & Hilgers, D. (2019). Outcomes of open government: Does an online platform improve citizens’ perception of local government? International Journal of Public Sector Management, 32(5), 489-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-02-2018-0056
Santolamazza, V., Mattei, G., & Grandis, F. G. (forthcoming). Citizens’ role and digitalisation in the participatory budgeting to create public value: the case of Rome. International Journal of Public Sector Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-05-2023-0165
Patergiannaki, Z., & Pollalis, Y. A. (2024). E-government quality from the citizen's perspective: the role of perceived factors, demographic variables and the digital divide. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 37(2), 232-254. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-07-2023-0229