Theoretical approaches to digital services and digital democracy: The Merits of the Contextual New Medium Theory Model

Jens Villiam Hoff; Christian Elling Scheele

doi:10.1002/1944-2866.poi368

Theoretical approaches to digital services and digital democracy: The Merits of the Contextual New Medium Theory Model

Jens Villiam Hoff, Christian Elling Scheele

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article develops a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze all types of political and administrative web applications Through a discussion and criticism of social construction of technology (SCOT), an earlier version of this model based on new medium theory (the NeMT model), Leavitt's "diamond" and Jane Fountain's "technology enactment" model, the article arrives at a model, called the "Contextual NeMT" model. This model focuses on how the specific affordances of the Internet are translated into specific political and/or administrative practices, and how these practices are produced through the interplay between and among discourses, actors, and technology. Finally, the article demonstrates the merits of the model by using it in the analysis of the digital practices of the municipality of Odder, a frontrunner in the development of digital services and e-democracy in Denmark.

Original language	Danish
Article number	2
Journal	Policy & Internet
Volume	6
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	241-267
Number of pages	27
ISSN	1944-2866
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/1944-2866.poi368
Publication status	Published - 17 Sept 2014

Keywords

Faculty of Social Sciences

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10.1002/1944-2866.poi368

Cite this

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title = "Theoretical approaches to digital services and digital democracy: The Merits of the Contextual New Medium Theory Model",

abstract = "The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework, which can be used in the analysis of all types of (political-administrative) web applications. Through a discussion and criticism of social construction of technology (SCOT), an earlier version of this model based on new medium theory (the NeMT model), Leavitt{\textquoteright}s “diamond” and Jane Fountain{\textquoteright}s “technology enactment model”, the paper arrives at a new version of the the NeMT-model, called the contextual NeMT-model. Like the earlier version of the NeMT-model the new version focuses on how the specific affordances of the Internet are translated into specific (political-administrative) practices, and how these practices are produced through the interplay between discourses, actors and technology. However, the new version places practices more firmly at the centre of the model, as practices, following Reckwitz, is seen as the enactment of discourses and technology in the everyday routines. Finally, the paper demonstrates the merits of the model by using it in the analysis of the digital practices of the municipality of Odder; a frontrunner in digital services and democracy in Denmark. ",

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