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Democracy to Come: Active Forums as Indicator Suites for e-Participation and e-Governance

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Electronic Participation (ePart 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5694))

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Abstract

There is in modern industrial societies a ‘civic deficit’ Civic engagement in the traditional sense of community values and civic participation is declining (Putman 2000). What has not been examined is the ways in which various media including new media may provide real options for participatory cultures and participatory democracy now and in the future. Undoubtedly there are differences between participatory cultures that are considered a ‘genuine’ contribution to representational democracy and those that are not. This paper, based on initial research into Internet activism, will examine GetUp! as a specific example of an active forum that the authors argue enable participatory citizenship through media participation. While there are very few examples of active forums that might be considered a ‘genuine’ contribution to representational democracy there are clear signals that activism through active forums is maturing into a potent democratic force.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communications and Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

    Debbie Rodan

  2. Department of Internet Studies,Curtin University of Technology,Perth,Western Australia, School of Communications and Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia

    Mark Balnaves

Authors
  1. Debbie Rodan
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  2. Mark Balnaves
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Digital Governance, Centre for Digital Citizenship, Institute of Communications Studies, The University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Ann Macintosh

  2. University of Macedonia, Egnatia 156, 540 06, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efthimios Tambouris

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Rodan, D., Balnaves, M. (2009). Democracy to Come: Active Forums as Indicator Suites for e-Participation and e-Governance. In: Macintosh, A., Tambouris, E. (eds) Electronic Participation. ePart 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5694. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-03780-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-03781-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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