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The affordances and use of green citizen engagement web tools
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Datum
2015
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University of Copenhagen
Zusammenfassung
The purpose of this paper is to analyse if and how three different green citizen engagement web tools create the basis for different levels of environmental citizen participation. This is relevant in both an e-governance context and an environmental policy context, as it is normally assumed that ICT as such can be used to strengthen such participation, without looking neither at the special opportunity structure that the applications offer (their affordance) nor the actual use of the applications. Theoretically, the paper departs from Contextual New Medium Theory. This theory focuses on technological practices, and demonstrates how these are created in interplay between technology, policy ideas and actor skills. Empirically, the paper unfolds as a comparative case study of three different green citizen engagement web tools, chosen due to the differences in their affordance. It is then analyzed whether these differences result in differences in environmental participation. It is concluded that while differences in participation are indeed found, these differences seem to hinge at least as much on the activities of skilled actors such as involved civil servants, web- and game administrators than on the affordances of the web applications.