Building an Architecture of Participation? Political Parties and Web 2.0 in Britain

The Evolution of Decision-Making in the British Labour Party: From Grassroots to Netroots?

“…Therefore, although new media are touted as tools of democratization and empowerment, technology is not in itself a stimulus to participation; there is no guarantee that the use of new social media, especially not if they are used just as another marketing channel, will increase participatory democracy within parties. Overall, the new media potentially make it easier for parties to market themselves to the already sympathetic but will not be able to reverse the long-term trend of declining membership, as empirical evidence indicates that parties are not using the technology to reinvent mass participation but only to improve campaign efficiency (Jackson and Lilleker, 2009). For the time being, Labour's use of technological tools seems simply to enhance existing trends of internal centralization and individualization.…”

A Day in the “Swamp”: Understanding Discourse in the Online Counter-Jihad Nebula

“…Where media such as television and newspapers are relatively scarce, linear and fixed, the web offers almost limitless opportunities for users to choose content and sources that reflect their own interests. 72 The ability to filter content and coalesce with like-minded people has been seen by some as of great benefit to consumers and by others as having possibly negative effects for democracy. 73 The low barriers to entry into the online sphere have been singled out by writers such as Nathan Lean as allowing the counter jihad scene to develop from a few local pockets of anti-Muslim thought to a broader international movement.…”

Choosing the Right Medium for Municipal eParticipation Based on Stakeholder Expectations

“…While political parties have embraced technology, they are yet to embrace the social concepts underlying the technology [10]. A recent study defines both the social and technical concepts of technology for research, and calls for practical applications of the theoretical framework [11].…”