Copyright © 2001 Sandipan. All rights reserved.
Juliet
Musso(PI) SPPD;
Sandra
Ball-Rokeach, Annenberg;
Genevieve
Giuliano, SPPD;
Christopher Weare,
Public Policy Institute of California.
This project analyzes the effects of advanced telecommunications technologies on reform efforts seeking to decentralize democratic governance. We will focuses our analysis on technology use in the implementation of a formal neighborhood council system in the City of Los Angeles. This reform effort represents a significant and well-defined natural experiment in the political uses of information and communications technologies (ICTs). As such, it provides an excellent opportunity to extend the technology and politics literature, which to date has focused on the national level and elections, to investigate effects on local governance, which is the primary sphere for civic engagement in policy making. We will draw from theories in the area of political communication, organizational theory and urban political economy to develop hypotheses about the factors that influence the successful integration of ICTs in the creation of neighborhood council systems, their effects on patterns of political communication, and the effects of communications networks on political outcomes and attitudes among stakeholders at the local level. Our research design is based on the proposition that changes in communication patterns and information flows caused by use of technologies precede and are a necessary intermediate cause of ultimate effects on political outcomes. Consequently, our research focuses on the changing patterns of political communication.
The research will employ multiple methods to elucidate the complex linkages between implementation inputs, communication networks, political processes, and policy and attitudinal outcomes. The methods employed will include (1) case study analysis of the design, implementation, and diffusion of neighborhood councils and communications technology; (2) analysis of the vertical communications promulgated and received by elected officials as a part of the mandated early notification system; (3) network analysis of the dynamics of communications within and between neighborhood councils and city government; and (4) preliminary analysis of the political effects of vertical and horizontal communications. Data collection will include archival and field research, interviews, and two panel surveys. These data will be employed in diffusion analyses and network analyses producing sociograms of linkages and cliques developing among members of city government and neighborhood councils. The network analysis provides a systematic framework for conceptualizing and analyzing the effects of ICTs on communication patterns and the manner in which changing communication patterns influence democratic outcomes.
This analysis will illuminate the effects of ICTs on the distribution of information and political communications and the resulting effects of changing communication patterns on citizen participation and the responsiveness of political institutions. Moreover, our research will improve our understanding of the technological factors that impede or promote political participation by traditionally underrepresented groups. By applying more refined concepts of Internet connectedness and participation in communication networks, we will improve our ability to examine the causes, extent, and effects of the digital divide.
Copyright © 2001 Sandipan. All rights reserved.