Digitalization of society opens opportunities, but also challenges
Digitalization is characterizing our time in many different ways and challenging all parts of the society when opening for new practices. Public administration is indeed influenced by the digitalization both by new demands from citizens and other actors using the technology and forming new social practices and internally by demands from professionals and policy makers aiming to improve public efficiency, transparency, accessibility and other public values by smart use of digital technologies. e-Government has to search for new ways to be sustainable, legitimate and effective and gain the confidence of citizens required to state. There is also a challenge to design e-government so as to reach everyone and manage public organizations at local as well as global levels. This use of digital technologies in public administration and democratic processes is grasped by the concept e-government.
The aims of the module
There are needs to continuously strive for a more sustainable e-government, where resilience and innovation is guiding the modern democratic public administration. The aim of this proposed module within the program SI Summer Academy for Young Professionals (SAYP) is to develop skills and address challenges around sustainable e-government in a digital society through an interactive learning anchored in both theory and practice.
Who can participate?
We welcome all the key actors involved in digitalisation of public administration and public services. Our module turns essentially, but not exclusively, to:
- civil servants, decisions-makers and policy makers in public administration
- influencers, activists and leaders in the civil society and
- corporate representatives both from public and private sector
The advanced character of the lectures, the assignments and the discussions presume that the participants possess a certain knowledgeability of – and experience of working with e-government or e-services. Otherwise, they should show an advanced interest in discussing e-government as an enabler in addressing challenges of transparency, equality, effectiveness and resilience in a more sustainable public administration. They should also express an intentionality to apply the acquired learning and experience in their activities back home.
The pedagogical approach and the work process
The pedagogical approach of interactivity, knowledge building, sharing and application characterizes the entire module. The module is preceded by small, preparatory pre-studies in the participating countries and two webinar discussions on the goals, expectations and the work methods in the module. The thematic module is based on a number of key interactive lectures, mirroring work groups and case studies – led by researchers and practitioners from Sweden, on e-government, public organization and administration in Sweden, with focus on challenges, lessons and best practices. The discussions from the lectures are subsequently mirrored in smaller work groups so that they focus more specifically on reflections and questions that connect to the respective countries realities.
The participants will continue to specify and anchor their knowledge by working with case studies, where they will collaborate with each other to identify salient, common or hidden problems. A number of study visits, meeting regional and national key actors in development of e-government are included in the module. Networking and informal discussions on the topic, inspired from the Swedish history, food and nature will be part of the social events in the module. A final and important element in the module are the opportunities for supervision and cooperation to further develop the analyses produced in the case studies in form of conference papers or workshops to be submitted to and presented in an international forum that brings together policy makers, experts, practitioners and researchers in the fields of e-government, e-democracy and innovation in public administration.
