[EGOV LIST] Call for Papers. Special issue in Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society

[Manuel Pedro Rodriguez Bolivar]

*Emerging technologies implementation for improving citizen 
participation and collaboration*

**

*Special Issues editors:*

Prof. Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, University of Granada, Spain

Email: manuelp at ugr.es <mailto:manuelp at ugr.es>

Assoc. Prof. Laura Alcaide Muñoz, University of Granada, Spain

Email: lauraam at ugr.es <mailto:lauraam at ugr.es>

Assist. Prof. Cristina Alcaide Muñoz, University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Email: c.alcaide at uah.es <mailto:c.alcaide at uah.es>

*Overview of Special Issue*

During the last decades, Information and Communication Technologies 
(ICTs) have played a key role in democratic political and governance 
processes (Ramadani et al. 2022), seeking to engage citizens in 
participatory dynamics, supporting more democratic decision-making 
processes and strengthening representative democracy. By contrast, up to 
now, this implementation of ICTs has mainly produced higher data 
collection, better information flows and higher information transparency 
(Al Sulaimani and Ozuem, 2022).

With the rise of emerging technologies (ETs), new sceneries seem to be 
arisen. Indeed, ETs should go beyond providing higher access for 
citizens to participate in public issues, co-creating and co-deciding 
public affairs in an equal power basis with public institutions (Casiano 
et al., 2022; Mergel, 2015), especially in crisis situations (Criado et 
al., 2020). It also offers the opportunity to monitor the behavior of 
public managers and politicians, which improves accountability and 
promotes democratic processes by opening critical issues for different 
communities (Schmidthuber et al., 2017). This way, an increasing number 
of governments around the world are implementing platforms, 
applications, and tools based on ETs to promote an informed citizenry, 
direct voting, and crowdsourced decisions, trying to increase trust in 
government (Marino and Lo Presti, 2018).

Nonetheless, although academic scholars have highlighted the need to 
strengthen research focused on actual practices of citizen involvement 
in public issues (Rodríguez Bolívar et al. 2018; Alcaide Muñoz et al. 
2017), we can only find prior research analyzing models and frameworks 
that have addressed this question (Cortés-Cediel et al. 2019; Boukris et 
al. 2016). Also, evidence of e-participation initiatives and projects in 
which ETs are being used is scarce, limiting the understanding and 
learning that these practical experiences could provide. Therefore, this 
special issue seeks to shed some light with contributions offering 
rigorous research evidence about these experiences to fill the gap in 
the use of ETs in e-participation initiatives, especially concerning the 
ET implementation and impact on citizen engagement in collaborative 
governance models.

*Indicative List of Anticipated Themes:*

This special issue seeks a wide range of papers that deal with diverse 
projects of ETs implementation in governance models, especially at the 
smart city level, to favor progress in this field of knowledge with the 
consequent impact and practical implications necessary to develop these 
ETs initiatives. All the papers submitted should also be sure that they 
fit with the scope of the journal Sustainable Cities and Society. Else, 
the manuscript will be desk-rejected.

Among others, the following tentative themes are the interest for the 
special issue:

-Theoretical approaches to the study of citizens participation using ETs.

-ET implementation in the use of citizen e-Participation initiatives.

-Citizen participation and collaboration initiatives promoting under the 
Smart Cities framework

-Collaborative and social platforms under ETs to foster co-production 
(participatory budgeting initiatives, new projects, etc.)

-Empirical experiences on the use of digital participation and 
co-production platforms to manage and coordinate crisis situations 
(Environmental catastrophes, health crisis, etc.).

-Digital competence of public officials in ETs to support citizen 
collaboration and participation under implementation of ET-base systems.

-Political leading initiatives in implementing ETs form citizen 
participation and collaboration.

-Benefits, challenges, and barriers in ET implementation for citizen 
participation and collaboration.

-Improving inclusiveness in citizen participation using ETs.

*Manuscript submission information:*

*Important Dates in Sustainable Cities and Society Special Issue:*

Initial paper submission deadline: 29^th  February 2024

First round authors notification: 15^th  May 2024

Invited revisions deadline: 26^th  July 2024

Second round authors notification: 15^th  September 2024

Final revision deadline: 15^th  October 2024

Final authors notification: 15^th  November 2024

Project publication date: January 2025

*Submission Site:*https://www.editorialmanager.com/scsi/default2.aspx 
<https://www.editorialmanager.com/scsi/default2.aspx>

*Article Type Name:* “VSI: ETs for e-participation”- please select this 
item when you submit manuscripts online.

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, 
welcome to contact *Managing Guest Editor Prof. Manuel Pedro Rodríguez 
Bolívar* (manuelp at ugr.es <mailto:manuelp at ugr.es>).

*Guide for Authors will be helpful for your future contributions, read 
more:*https://www.elsevier.com/journals/sustainable-cities-and-society/2210-6707/guide-for-authors 
<https://www.elsevier.com/journals/sustainable-cities-and-society/2210-6707/guide-for-authors>

For more information, please visit the ScienceDirect Page of the 
journal: 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/sustainable-cities-and-society 
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/sustainable-cities-and-society>

**

*References*

Al Sulaimani, A.H.A. and Ozuem, W. (2022). Understanding the role of 
transparency, participation, and collaboration for achieving open 
digital government goals in Oman. /Transforming Government: People, 
Process and Policy/, 16(4), 595-612.

Alarabiat, A., Soares, D. and Estevez, E. (2021). Determinants of 
citizens’ intention to engage in government-led electronic participation 
initiatives through Facebook. /Government Information Quarterly/, 38(1), 
101537.

Alcaide Muñoz, L., Rodríguez Bolívar, M.P., Cobos, M.J., Herrera Viedma, 
E. (2017). Analyzing the scientific evolution of e-Government using a 
science mapping approach. /Government Information Quarterly/, 34(3), 
545-555.

Allen, B., Tamindael, L.E., Bickerton, S.H. and Cho, W. (2020). Does 
citizen coproduction lead to better urban services in smart cities 
projects? An empirical study on e-participation in a mobile bid data 
platform. /Government Information Quarterly/, 37(1), 101-412.

Boukhris, I., Ayachi, R. and Elouedi, Z., Melloullli, S. and Ben Amor, 
N. (2016). Decision model for policy makers in the content of citizens 
engagement: Application on Participatory Budgeting. /Social Science 
Computer Review/, 34(6), 740-756.

Casiano Flores, C., Rodríguez Müller, A.P., Virkar, S., Temple, L., 
Steen, T. and Crompvoets, J. (2022). Towards a co-creation approach in 
the European Interoperability Framework. /Transforming Government: 
People, Process and Policy/, 16(4), 519-539.

Cortes-Cediel, M.E., Cantador, I. and Rodriguez Bolivar, M.P. (2019). 
Analyzing Citizen Participation and Engagement in European Smart Cities. 
/Social Science Computer Review/. Online First.

Criado, J.I., Guevara Gomez, A. and Villodre, J. (2020). Using 
collaborative technologies and social media to engage citiznes and 
governments during the COVID-19 Crisis. The Case of Spain. /Digital 
Government: Research and Practice/, 1(4), 1-7.

Gascó, M. (2017). Living Labs: Implementing open innovation in the 
public sector. /Government Information Quarterly/, 34(1), 90-98.

Marino, V. and Lo Presti, L. (2018). From citizens to partners: the role 
of social media content in fostering citizen engagement. /Transforming 
Government: People, Process and Policy/, 12(1), 39-60.

Mergel, I. (2015). Opening Government: Designing Open Innovation 
Processes to Collaborate with Externa Problems Solvers/. Social Science 
Computer Review,/ 33(5), 599-612.

Ramadani, L., Yovadiani, A. and Dewi, F. (2022). When innocence is no 
protection: governance failure of digitalization and its impact on local 
level implementation. /Transforming Government: People, Process and 
Policy/, 16(1), 68-80.

Rodríguez Bolívar, M.P., Alcaide Muñoz, L. and Cobo, M.J. (2018). 
Analyzing the scientific evolution and impact of e-Participation 
research in JCR journals using science mapping. /International Journal 
of Information Management/, 40, 111-119.

Schmidthuber, L., Hilgers, D., Gegenhuber, T. and Etzelstorfer, S. 
(2017). The emergende of local open government: Determinants of citizen 
participation in online service reporting. /Government Information 
Quarterly/, 34(3), 457-469.