Rethinking e-Government Research: The ‘ideology-artefact complex’

Abstract

Abstract. The authors present a framework for e-government research that draws heavily on Iacono and Kling's work on computerization movements. They build on this work by appropriating cognate studies of organizational informatics by Kling and his colleagues, and socio-technical research in the UK. From this blend, they derive a construct, the 'ideology-artefact complex'. Using empirical work (including recent case studies of their own), they indicate how this may inform e-government research. They discuss ways in which the construct may act as a bridge between two traditions of UWEuropean social informatics and US socio-technical research. They discuss a potential research agenda for computerization movements in egovernment that focuses on three main problem areas: macro level social order, counter-movements and material realisation.

Ideologies implicated in IT innovation in government: A critical discourse analysis of Mexico's international trade administration

“…The diffusion of IT innovation in the public sector (and its aliases e-government and digital government) clearly bears characteristics of a CM (Davenport & Horton, 2006;Hara & Rosenbaum, 2008). Ideas about the effects of IT in the public sector have changed over the years from major productivity gains and better planning (Danziger, Dutton, Kling, & Kraemer, 1982) to re-inventing the interaction of citizens with the state.…”

“…The importance of public policies for IT innovation has received some attention in the IS research stream on health care. For example, in the United Kingdom, adherence to the policy of a nationwide health care service (the NHS) that should be of equal quality across the country justified launching an IT mega-project for a uniform countrywide health IS infrastructure (Currie & Guah, 2007;Davenport & Horton, 2006;Sauer & Willcocks, 2007). Also, explanations of the difficulties faced in the development of effective IT infrastructures in the NHS have pointed to the ambivalence of health care policy.…”

“…For example, in Europe, e-government was promoted in relation to the European Union's aspiration for an "information society" of shared values and practices across nations with different cultures and socio-economic conditions. This European Union vision required the implementation of interoperable technologies (Davenport & Horton, 2006;Grönlund, 2002). An analysis of public discourses in Turkey found that e-government was associated with the aspiration of harmonizing the country's institutions with the European Union (Yildiz & Saylam, 2013).…”

Exploring Ideology in the Adoption of Socio-Technical Assemblages

“…The mobilisation of expectations is frequently cited as an important element of IT adoption, and specifically within the discourse surrounding IT project management this tends to be portrayed as a critical factor. However, as Davenport and Horton (2008) argue, the power of project proposals often lies in their presentation of broad sweeping utopian visions that are inherently untestable, but which do often nonetheless mobilise support. The authors also suggest that utopian in fact means no place ('outopia'): "A utopian technology is thus one that has no material realisation in a place or locality: descriptions in plans, contracts, formalisms, specifications, the writings of enthusiasts, come into this category.…”