Comparing online with offline citizen engagement for climate change: Findings from Austria, Germany and Spain

The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts in this field, about the effect of e-participation in the fight against climate change. Their experiences in, and the fulfillment of their expectations about, citizen participation in local government env...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGovernment information quarterly Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 26 - 36
Main Authors Pina, Vicente, Torres, Lourdes, Royo, Sonia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.01.2017
Subjects
Citizen panels
Citizen participation
Climate change
e-participation
Citizen panels
Climate change
Citizen participation
e-participation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The aim of this paper is to study the expectations of environmental senior managers, as experts in this field, about the effect of e-participation in the fight against climate change. Their experiences in, and the fulfillment of their expectations about, citizen participation in local government environmental programs have been analyzed through different questionnaires in order to answer the following research questions. What effects can be expected from citizen participation in environmental programs? What conditions are necessary for, and what barriers are there to, successful participation processes? Is e-participation more effective than traditional citizen participation? The results confirm that e-participation is only an enabler of citizen engagement in participation processes, but it does not overcome all the barriers to these processes. The success of citizen participation cannot be guaranteed merely by introducing ICTs. The integration of e-participation with traditional offline tools for citizen participation is needed.
ISSN:0740-624X
1872-9517
DOI:10.1016/j.giq.2016.08.009