Digital Government

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in government introduces both opportunities and challenges for the public sector. AI adoption is being driven, on the one side, by technical advances in a number of areas such as machine learning, neural nets, and deep learning and, on the other, by economic forces as governments strive to provide more services with fewer resources and respond to calls for innovation. AI offers potential to boost efficiency and improve decision-making by processing large amounts of data and information that can help to, for example, identify welfare beneficiaries, combat fraud, and not only deliver better public services but also reduce the cost of delivering personalized and customized services to citizens. However, along with benefits, AI poses risks to individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. For example, machines lack accountability, and there are opaque and proprietary software tools working outside the scope of meaningful scrutiny and accountability (the so-called “black boxes”) already being used to make decisions that can have fundamental effects on the lives of ordinary citizens. While many government agencies identify AI as a priority, the successful diffusion of this innovation has not been fully realized on a large scale.

This minitrack explores both current and potential uses of AI in government and factors related to its use. We invite contributions on the adoption and implementation of AI in public organizations, its benefits and risks, as well as on the control, regulation, and governance of this technology. While we envisage papers in this minitrack being on the use of AI primarily in public administration, we will also welcome papers in areas and on topics within the wider public sector, including policing and health (although we will not consider papers related to AI in national security and the military). We welcome submissions with diverse views and methodologies. The goal of this minitrack is to promote critical discussion on the current status and future trajectory of AI in government. Among the dimensions of AI in government that might be addressed are:

1. The implementation and management of AI systems as a public management task
2. The ethics and risk governance of AI and algorithms in public management implementation
3. Linking AI implementation, evaluation and the political agenda
4. The behavioral impacts of AI – e.g. on motivation, trust, decisions, etc.
5. The impact of AI on policy development and strategic planning
6. Comparative studies across different public service fields
7. The role of organizational and/or institutional factors in the implementation of AI
8. Transparency, accountability, and other harm-mitigation strategies
9. The effects of algorithmic decisions used in frontline service delivery on street-level bureaucrat discretion and oversight
10. Governance of AI
11. Determinants of AI adoption
12. Challenges of AI implementation – e.g. legitimacy concerns, worker up-skilling
13. AI and digital government design
14. The integration of AI with existing information systems in the public sector
15. AI and sustainable public management
16. Interoperability of AI systems within and across government agencies
17. Algorithmic justice

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Laura Hand (Primary Contact)
University of North Dakota
laura.hand@und.edu

Lemuria Carter
University of Sydney
Lemuria.Carter@sydney.edu.au

Dapeng Liu
Baylor University
dapeng_liu@baylor.edu

The cybersecurity aspects of government and critical infrastructures have become a hot topic for countries all across the globe. Information Technology has become pervasive in all aspects of our lives. The minitrack examines aspects associated with the security of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) used by governments and critical infrastructures and explores ways that IT can enhance the ability of governments to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. Of special interest are systems such as industrial control systems, SCADA, and process control networks which control infrastructures that include electricity (Smartgrid), pipelines, chemical plants, manufacturing, traffic control and more.

Governments have also embraced IT to interface with citizens in a more efficient manner. Security issues have risen to the forefront as a result of data disclosures and identity theft incidents discussed in mainstream media. Other issues include intellectual property theft and criminal acts involving computers. Recently, the issue of cybersecurity information sharing has also risen in importance and much has been written and debated on this subject.

This mintrack explores research into pressing issues surrounding the intersection of cybersecurity and government spheres of influence. Whether technical or policy, from information sharing to new analytical methods of detection of insider threats, this minitrack casts a wide net to bring cross disciplinary thinking to problems with far-reaching implications.

This is a wide focus minitrack, if your research involves security associated with IT or OT, and has a government component, then this is its home. Topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Systems for governments to respond to security events
2. Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)
3. Cyber physical systems security
4. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and control systems
5. Election Security
6. Cybersecurity issues during a crisis such as a pandemic
7. Information assurance and trusted Computing
8. Information sharing
9. Information security economics
10. Information warfare
11. Incident response
12. New threats, including insider and nation states
13. Digital forensics
14. Privacy and freedom of information
15. Security management
16. Laws and regulation of IT security
17. Security concerns of new technologies
18. Cybersecurity in government disaster recovery and business continuity
19. Case reports related to security experiences within government”

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Philip Menard (Primary Contact)
University of Texas at San Antonio
philip.menard@utsa.edu

Keith  Harrison
University of Texas at San Antonio
keith.harrison@utsa.edu

Greta Nasi
Bocconi University
greta.nasi@unibocconi.it

This minitrack aims to provide an opportunity and an open forum for discussion of different technological, socio-political, institutional, legal, and organizational strategies that inform the design, implementation, and management of digital reforms in the public sector. Specifically, this track seeks papers that discuss theories and/or present cases and empirical studies useful to better understand how different digital government policies and/or strategies can lead to successful digital government deployments, or, on the other hand, how different factors may lead to the failure of such projects. Papers which examine or discuss external or contextual factors that affect or influence digital government, such as the political state; organizational culture; institutional factors or normative arrangements are also invited. By digital government action, we mean both macro-level institutional design and micro-level collaboration and competition between diverse stakeholders.

Contributions to literature cover different areas and topics. New and emerging technologies, not to mention new thinking about public administration and government itself, often demand new ways of thinking and innovative approaches to frame these deployments. In the current global society, these new demands become increasingly important. Digital technologies provide in fact new opportunities and challenges for adaptive and agile governance, yet they have also impacted the way by which public administration’s processes and activities are structured and executed. Papers which address these challenges are particularly welcomed this year.

In addition, the minitrack welcomes contributions exploring the issues associated with the design, implementation, and management of policies and strategies that change the nature of the interactions between government and citizens, private sector organizations, and NGOs. Moreover, papers that discuss the political, institutional, regulatory, and organizational implication of the deployment of emerging and disruptive technologies are particularly welcomed. We invite papers on the following topics, but not limited to:

1. Best practices for design, implementation, and management of digital innovation in the public sector.
2. Cases of digital government platforms design, implementation, and management
3. Design, implementation, and management of interoperability policies: legal, organizational, semantic, and technical layers
4. Design, implementation, and management of ICT for development strategies
5. Design, implementation, and management of ICT related outsourcing and insourcing in the public sector
6. Design, implementation, and management of digital strategies
7. Design, implementation, and management of digital transformation in policymaking
8. Design, implementation, and management of E-Procurement policies and strategies
9. Design, implementation, and management of ICT mediated co-creation and co-production
10. Design, implementation, and management of ICT transparency, and accountability
11. Design, implementation, and management of privacy and data protection policies and strategies
12. Digital by default and its implications
13. E-justice and ethics of emerging technologies
14. ICT for efficiency and effectiveness in government action
15. Regulatory challenges associated with ICTs deployments
16. Public health versus privacy concerns
17. Public policy issues in digital government
18. Quantitative and qualitative analyse of the impact of digital government policies and strategies
19. Socio-political, institutional, organisational, and ethical impacts of disruptive technologies
20. Strategies to design, implement, and manage innovative technologies
21. Examine the impact of digital technologies on the structure and execution of public administration processes and activities
22. Discuss how the external and internal context in public administration and government is shaping digital strategies and deployments
23. Impact on the digital mindset on governmental strategies and policies
24. Narratives, tensions and Identification in digital government transformation processes and among policymakers

We are looking for high-quality conference papers that adopt a wide range of approaches on content, case studies, or practical and theoretical models to advance the knowledge related to the design, implementation, and management of strategies and policies in the digital government context. The papers submitted to this minitrack must be new and unpublished.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Kristina Lemmer (Primary Contact)
City University of Applied Sciences Bremen
kristina.lemmer@hs-bremen.de

Antonio Cordella
London School of Economics and Political Science
a.cordella@lse.ac.uk

Francesco Gualdi
Regent’s University London
francesco.gualdi@regents.ac.uk

The main objective of this minitrack is to focus on how technologies, information management, data sciences and artificial intelligence can contribute to support the role of government in emergency management. This topic stems from the following considerations.

The evolution and progress of our civilizations have brought our world into a state of hyper-connection, hyper-density and hyper-concentration which has, little by little, completely erased all the spaces of physical, organizational or structural absorption. Yet, these spaces were likely to limit the expansion of critical situations, thus preventing the number, the amplitude and the repercussions of crises. This statement of fact and the responsibility it highlights, not necessarily for humans but at least for the development of the human species, with respect to the frequency, gravity and propagation of the crises that affect our planet, reciprocally underlines the need for our species to take charge of managing these crises. It is therefore fundamentally on all the questions relating to the handling of these missions by the governance structures (whether they are global, continental, national, regional or local) that this DIRECT minitrack wishes to address: The serious challenges facing government in cities, regions and nations of the world relate to acute shocks (e.g. forest fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, pandemics and terrorist attacks) and chronic stresses (e.g. high unemployment, religious extremism, inefficient public transport, endemic violence, chronic shortages of food and water).

Information is among the key life-supporting essentials in a disaster response, as well as water and basic foods which are vital to sustain lives. Above all, the recent pandemics, environmental changes, geopolitical tensions have shown how information (about contamination, about root causes, about trust, about stocks, about science and progress) could be at the heart of the crisis management. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has, and will continue to profoundly change, disaster management in years to come. This, coupled with the impressive recent advances in artificial intelligence, offers huge potential for better management of crisis situations. Data and information management also guides us to build a disaster-resilient community which can adapt the society to those unexpected events. These issues should be tackled at each level of the governance (international, national, regional, local, etc.), and with regards to all relevant dimensions (social, technological, interoperability, agility, etc.).
We invite papers that deal with any aspect of the analysis, design, development, deployment, implementation, integration, operation, use or evaluation of ICT for crisis management, and resilient communities, especially in the perspective of discussing the roles of government and governance structures.

Papers may address any phase in the disaster management cycle: Prevention and mitigation; preparedness; alert; response; recovery; and post disaster. In addition, we support innovative and break-through visions regarding these topics. Topics of Interests include:

1. Government’s disaster preparedness – disaster management plan, business continuity plan
2. Role, evolution and perspectives of governance structures for better crisis management
3. Crisis management for all stages – preparation, prevention, response and recovery
4. Early warning systems and situational awareness among key stakeholders
5. Social media and Citizen/Volunteers engagement to disaster responses
6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based content management, disaster mapping and Crisis informatics
7. Real-time data analysis for government’s decision making
8. Vertical management of information (from very local to the highest governmental level)
9. International disaster response collaborations including government organizations
10. Disaster communications with government organizations
11. Disaster data recovery regarding public information
12. Functional and technological expectations for crisis management inside governmental organizations
13. Government’s role in resilient communities
14. Human Centered Sensing for collaboration and communication
15. Privacy, security and ethical issues in crisis and emergency management
16. Pattern recognition, triage and prioritization of assistance
17. Case studies; theory and practice
18. Advances in crisis management methods and practice
19. Security and safety models for emergency management systems
20. eHealth for disasters and emergencies
21. Drones for disaster response and management and Disaster robotics
22. Computational simulation of crisis situations
23. Mobile ad-hoc networks for emergencies
24. Ground security / homeland security
25. Antifragility of systems and territories
26. Decision making in uncertain and instable environments
27. Standardization and interoperability issues in disaster management from an eGov perspective
28. Resilience of socio-technic systems, critical infrastructure and network of infrastructures
29. Emerging paradigms for disaster management
30. Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news in (social) media and institutions”

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Terje Gjøsæter (Primary Contact)
University of Agder
terje.gjosater@uia.no

Elsa Negre
Paris-Dauphine University
elsa.negre@dauphine.fr

Jaziar Radianti
University of Agder
jaziar.radianti@uia.no

The traditional contours of democracy are being reshaped by digital innovations, where citizen engagement becomes a dynamic force, and where the very act of voting undergoes a transformative evolution. While different solutions for facilitating citizen engagement are being adopted at very different levels of administration, academia aims to stand at the forefront of this democratic revolution by delving into the nuances of e-democracy and technologically mediated citizen participation with an analytical lens.

Researchers have been focusing already for some time on the adoption and implementation processes of different digital democracy tools, as well as to its impacts on democratic principles and potential for an inclusive participation. Even that, given the evolving nature of technology and the numerous ongoing democratic processes where it is being implemented, the field offers a large number of challenges that are still not covered. Transparency, accountability, security, ethics or trust management represent a shortlist of them. Moreover, the field of digital democracy involves many stakeholders that might influence the outcomes of its digitization process: malicious actors spreading misinformation, decision-makers in need of evidence-based knowledge, activists demanding different forms of political engagement or citizens expecting convenient forms of participation. As a result, this research field has great potential given the amount of open research avenues available and the different theoretical frameworks to tackle.

The governance of digital democracy, hence, appears as one of the hot challenges of our current days and, as the digital threads weave through the fabric of democracy, it is imperative that academics collaborate to address the sociotechnical and ethical considerations that continuously arise. This minitrack aims to provide the necessary room for those debates to happen, paying particular attention to the challenges arising from the different forms in which digital democratic processes are occurring, e.g. social participation and elections. Areas of focus and interest include, but are not limited, to the following topics:

1. User experience in e-democracy platforms
2. Diffusion of e-democracy
3. Information accessibility and inclusivity
4. (Dis)Information management and consumption in e-democracy
5. Digital literacy and citizen empowerment
6. Impact of social media on political participation
7. Trust and distrust in e-Democracy systems
8. Emerging technologies use in e-Democracy (AI, XR, Blockchain, …)
9. Human-Computer Interaction in civic engagement
10. Cross-cultural studies in e-Democracy adoption
11. Impact of information campaigns on political behavior
12. Evaluating digital deliberation platforms
13. Technological transformation of democracy models
14. Collaborative governance in E-Democracy
15. Governance of e-democracy
16. Policy-makers’ use of e-democracy and impact on policy-making
17. Novel uses of e-petitioning
18. Relations between transparency systems and e-democracy
19. Dark side of e-democracy and critical uses

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Uwe Serdült (Primary Contact)
Ritsumeikan University and University of Zurich
serdult@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp

David Duenas-Cid
Kozminski University
dduenas@kozminski.edu.pl

Anthony Simonofski
University of Namur
anthony.simonofski@unamur.be

The Digital Government Emerging Topics Minitrack provides a home for incubating new topics and emergent technologies in Digital Government research. Digital Government as an academic field has evolved and matured over more than two decades. While many subjects have become foundational, the field is also substantially shaped by ever evolving new directions of research and practice. The developments take place at the crossroads of different academic disciplines and in close connection to the practices in governments around the globe. This minitrack invites papers positioned in relation to the foundations of Digital Government and contributing to the evolution of the field, to clarifications and conceptualizations, or to addressing novel issues, innovative trends, and emerging technologies.

Submissions must specifically tackle the emerging nature of a technology or a specific topic and how the research presented builds new understanding. Submitted research needs also to relate to the central developments in the field of Digital Government. Topics and research areas include, but are not limited, to:

1. Emergent technologies and Digital Government
2. Digital transformation and agile government practices
3. Digital identity ecosystems in Digital Government
4. Digital Twins and other computational models in Government decision-making
5. Large Language Models (LLM) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Digital Government
6. Metaverse in Digital Government
7. Design Science in Digital Government
8. Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) in Digital Government: applications, legislation, benefits and risks
9. Internet of Things (IoT) in the public sector: applications, regulation, social impact, security and data analytics
10. Cross-border Digital Government / Interoperable Digital Government
11. Business Process Management (BPM) and Rapid Process Automation (RPA) in Digital Government
12. Ethics of Digital Government from theoretical and practical views, privacy concerns, and the right to know
13. Participatory approaches in government such as co-creation, co-production, and crowdsourcing
14. Potential threats from technology-enabled government and ways to be protected
15. Legal implications towards Next Generation Digital Government
16. Digital Government skills and competences
17. Data sharing within the Public Sector, and beyond, including Private Sector and Civil Society
18. Conceptual and practice-based boundaries and foundations of the field of Digital Government
19. Other topics as appropriate to the purposes of the mini-track

The papers submitted to this minitrack must be new and unpublished. We welcome papers from different settings and sectors in digital government and look more for innovative and creative analyses than best practices. We also give precedence to strong conceptual and empirical analysis (both qualitative and quantitative) over descriptive cases or opinion pieces.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

J. Ramon Gil-Garcia (Primary Contact)
University at Albany, State University of New York
jgil-garcia@albany.edu

Maria Wimmer
University of Koblenz
wimmer@uni-koblenz.de

Andriana Prentza 
University of Piraeus
aprentza@unipi.gr

Governments at all levels continue to promote, grow, and augment their digital engagement with citizens and other stakeholders. Through social media, mobile applications, online services, and other forms of smart services, governments are increasingly expecting the individuals to interact with them through a range of digital media and technologies. This includes areas like public services (e.g. information, security), policymaking (e.g., e-governance), government operations (e.g. emergency management, infrastructure development), and importantly also citizen engagement (e.g. transparency, decision-making).

As governments promote digital pathways for service and resource provision, as well as engagement, it is critical they ensure that all citizens can realize their needs through accessible, user-friendly, and secure digital solutions.

However, digital solution efforts are often hindered by significant societal differences in terms of access, know-how and infrastructure. There is a growing group of smart citizens benefiting from full access to the internet and opportunities to fully participate in digitalizing society. However, the digital revolution can easily leave behind people with no means or skills to benefit from technological progress. This creates a divide that must be addressed by government, to ensure opportunities for citizen engagement with government and associated resources and services. The divide also relates to different forms of citizen organizations and coalitions that remain important platforms for civic and socio-political engagement. While civil society actors can have an important role in bridging digital gaps, they often take longer to embrace technological innovations, hindering the grassroot capacity to fully participate in digital governance processes.

Crises, such as the pandemic, have highlighted the disparities and challenges that various populations and governments face in achieving a vision of digital engagement for all. The challenge now is to reflect on strategies to overcome barriers and identify opportunities to achieve digital engagement, while bridging digital and societal divides. Therefore, we invite authors to engage in critical discussion on citizens’ role, position and potential to engage in digital governance, as well as existing challenges and opportunities to achieving higher engagement.
The minitrack includes (but is not limited to) topics such as:

1. Supporting digital efforts to engage underserved populations;
2. The development of inclusive digital government;
3. The role of digital literacy in use/non-use of online government services;
4. Concept of smart citizen
5. Digital strategies and capabilities of civil society actors in the context of digital governance
6. Accessibility of digital government for people with perceptual, motor, or cognitive disabilities;
7. The role of government in the development of international standards for digital accessibility;
8. The role of community-based organizations or anchor institutions (e.g., public libraries, non-government organizations) in fostering digital engagement;
9. Development and/or implementation of statutes, regulations or policies related to digital engagement;
10. Developments in case law and policy related to digital engagement;
11. Trends in comparative or international law related to digital inclusion;
12. The relationship between trust of institutions and use of digital government by diverse populations;
13. How digital-based voting impacts involvement of citizens in elections
14. Usability evaluation methods for testing digital government services with diverse user populations;
15. Understanding barriers to the adoption of digital government services; and,
16. Inclusive design methods to involve diverse populations in the development of digital government services

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Elizabeth Vitullo (Primary Contact)
West Virginia University
eavitullo@mail.wvu.edu

Stephen Thorpe
Auckland University of Technology
stephen.thorpe@aut.ac.nz

Anna Domaradzka
University of Warsaw
anna.domaradzka@uw.edu.pl

One of the tenets in digital government research is the recognition that digital government is not an isolated technological artifact but an act of putting technology in the institutional, social, economic and political context and transforming both – the technology and the context – in the process. The context conveys the research problem or question, provides the data to address/answer them, and helps validate the proposed solution/answer.

While the national or sub-national contexts dominate, focusing on country-, state- or city-level policies, services, institutions and citizens, international and comparative studies are taking up. The reasons include: globalization and anti-globalization of technology, the influence of international organizations and international standards, problems/questions are shared and call for coordinated solutions/answers between countries, problems/questions concern relationships between countries, solutions/answers are transferred between countries, etc. Additionally, as countries face the challenge and risk of implementing their digital policies using highly dynamic and disruptive technologies, and managing the resulting social, economic and political change, their look to learn from each other to avoid making mistakes or even skipping early development stages altogether. They also seek to coordinate their responses to the growing international influence of BigTech on the national sovereignty and the rights of countries’ citizens and businesses. International and comparative digital government research is a tool in such learning and coordination.

This minitrack calls for the submissions of research work covering international and comparative aspects of digital government. We welcome exploratory, theoretical, empirical or applied research, originating in social, economic, political or multidisciplinary discourses. The topics include but are not limited to:

1. Comparative analysis of digital government across countries
2. Cybersecurity strategies in international relations
3. Digital authoritarianism versus democratic governance
4. Digital diplomacy and global governance frameworks
5. Digital diplomacy and international negotiations
6. Digital government and state capacity in the digital age
7. Digital government in democratic vs autocratic or authoritarian countries
8. Digital government in developing vs developed countries
9. Digital government in different socio-political cultures and environments
10. Digital government responses to climate change and other global challenges
11. Digital government responding to democratic breakup
12. Digital identity and national branding
13. Digital solutions to leverage international and humanitarian aid
14. Digital sovereignty and national control over data
15. Evaluation of cross-border digital government initiatives
16. Evaluation of cross-border digital service delivery models
17. Geopolitics of digital government
18. Impact assessment of international collaboration on digital government
19. Implementation of international digital identity systems
20. International case studies on digital government
21. International coordination on AI regulation and safety
22. International digital services to migrants and migrant communities
23. International standards for AI in government and society
24. International cloud provision enabling public sector innovation
25. International data sharing frameworks in public administration
26. International digital government measurement and benchmarking
27. International organizations shaping digital government policies
28. International standards for digital infrastructure
29. National factors influencing digital government service adoption
30. Open data policies for international collaboration
31. Political economy of digital government
32. Public diplomacy and digital storytelling

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Tomasz Janowski (Primary Contact)
Gdańsk University of Technology
tomasz.janowski@pg.edu.pl

Elsa Estevez
National University of the South
ecestevez@gmail.com

Beth Noveck
Northeastern University
noveck@thegovlab.org

Adegboyega Ojo
Carleton University
adegboyega.ojo@carleton.ca

Digital transformation has emerged as a paramount priority for many cities and communities, with the objective of enhancing citizen well-being and the efficacy of public administration and communities, but it also poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. Despite the extensive body of literature dedicated to smart cities and communities, the concept remains fuzzy due to its multidimensional and multifaceted nature that extends beyond the mere use of technology and infrastructure. In this regard, technology is a necessary condition for becoming a smart city or smart community, but it is not the only aspect considered when analyzing digital developments in our living environment. It should be integrated with the natural and built environments to enable and empower citizens, through individual and/or communal quests for wellbeing.

In recent years, emerging technologies have undoubtedly provided many possibilities for developing smart cities and communities and also brought opportunities to solve urban and community challenges. An increased number of studies indicate that emerging technologies significantly influence social life, catalyzing new needs of citizens and transforming how they are addressed, influencing people’s ability to exercise their “right to the city/community” and affecting social sustainability. While Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) implementation have traditionally dominated the discourse on smart cities and communities, significant challenges remain regarding the governance, digital inclusion, strategic planning, resilience, and social and cultural sustainability of these technological contexts. Issues such as city and community governance, information integration, data quality, privacy and security, institutional arrangements, resilience, inclusion, sustainability, and citizen participation require greater attention to plan human-centered smart solutions and monitor the social consequences of their implementation. The growing popularity of technologies such as artificial intelligence, metaverse, chatbots, open data, big data, blockchain, and so on, have opened new avenues for addressing these issues in the urban and communities’ contexts, but they have also brought some other challenges such as ethical issues or a new wave of digital divide and/or inclusion of citizens with low-tech skills, which requires continuous research in this area.

This minitrack aims to explore the aforementioned topics, with a particular focus on the social challenges faced during the implementation of smart solutions as well as on the impact these initiatives have on the community, to understand how new technologies can shape the decision-making processes, resilience, sustainability, and livability of local communities and, as a result, the wellbeing of their residents. Areas of focus and interest to this minitrack include, but are not limited, to the following topics:

1. Typologies of smart cities and communities
2. Impact of smart technologies on citizens and local communities
3. Theory and practice of smart citizenship – technological competencies vs. user experience
4. Emerging technologies in smart cities and communities (artificial intelligence, big data, open data, social media and networks, digital twins, metaverse, chatbots, etc.)
5. Elements, prerequisites, and principles of smart governance as the foundation for creating smart urban and regional spaces
6. Impact of smart governance models on urban resilience and quality of life
7. Smart cities and smart government – focal areas, current practices, cases, and potential pitfalls
8. Cases, rankings, comparisons, and critical success factors for smart cities, communities, and regions
9. Governance models of smart cities and communities for disaster risk mitigation
10. The role of digital technologies in both increasing community livability and improving social sustainability and inequalities
11. Smart services
12. Urban-rural gaps in smart communities
13. Strategic planning patterns in implementing ICTs for enhancing resilience and sustainability capacities in smart cities and communities
14. Implementing ICTs to build social and cultural capacities of urban resilience and sustainability in smart cities
15. Building knowledge societies for smart cities and communities
16. Smart cities and communities and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
17. Local contextual conditions that impact smart cities and communities’ initiatives
18. The role of metropolitan areas in the development of smart cities and communities
19. The role of community-rooted institutions in the development of smart cities and communities
20. Digital inequalities and the challenge of inclusion in the smart cities and community’s contexts
21. Emerging technologies impact on digital divide for socially sustainable and inclusive smart cities
22. The inclusion of people with disabilities in the smart cities and smart communities’ context”

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar (Primary Contact)
University of Granada, Spain
manuelp@ugr.es

Gabriela Viale Pereira
University for Continuing Education Krems
gabriela.viale-pereira@donau-uni.ac.at

Erico Przeybilovicz
Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York
eprzeybilovicz@albany.edu

In response to the evolving complexities and opportunities in the use of technology for public sector goals, there is a critical need for innovative and updated theoretical and methodological frameworks. As new technologies and stakeholders emerge, traditional Digital Government boundaries are being surpassed. In addition, Agenda 2030 and the development goals must be addressed throughout digital government policies and practices. Consequently, we need enhanced frameworks to grasp, integrate and facilitate research methods and theories on sustainable digital government.

This minitrack promotes academic engagement in testing and modifying existing theories and methodologies to capture rapidly changing reality. As an emergent research field that incorporates approaches from several disciplinary study domain as public administration, information systems, information science, and political science, there is a need to focus on theory and methods. In the multi-, cross- and even inter-disciplinary studies of digital government, theories and methods make up a key for valid and reliable studies that can guide sustainable and democratic use of digital government in policies and practices. These fresh perspectives are crucial for comprehending and examining the changing practices linked to the integration of ICT in the public sector.
New theoretical frameworks are imperative for introducing novel concepts, processes, and perspectives to thoroughly understand the intricate nature of digital government. Research methodologies are indispensable for ensuring the integrity and credibility of digital government studies, while also adapting to the burgeoning complexity of the field.

Innovative theories are essential for scrutinizing the organizational, technological, social, and institutional interdependencies inherent in digital government. Furthermore, advanced methodological approaches, such as computational methods, digital ethnography, and data science techniques, will establish new theoretical underpinnings, facilitating the design and implementation of efficacious digital government strategies.

Digital government research benefits significantly from the incorporation of theories from various fields, including information systems, political science, public administration, and computer science. Contributions that adeptly navigate the interdisciplinary nature of digital government research enhance our understanding of its impacts and implications, thereby offering a more comprehensive and robust perspective on the phenomena.

The overarching objective of this minitrack is to investigate the role of theory and methodological development within the realm of digital government. We invite submissions that offer diverse viewpoints on the significance of theory and methodological development in digital government, aiming to foster critical discourse on the current status and emerging theoretical trajectories of the discipline. By delving into the theoretical foundations of digital government initiatives, these contributions will provide policymakers and practitioners with the insights necessary for the effective design, implementation, and evaluation of such initiatives. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Fundamental Digital Government Theories and new approaches
2. Methodological comparisons, conceptualizations and reflections in Digital Government
3. The Role of Theory and Method Development and Theory Integration in Digital Government
4. The Status of the Digital Government Domain (discipline, or not?)
5. Digital Government Research Methodologies
6. Theory and methods from digital government reference disciplines contributing to the development of effective digital government strategies and practices
7. Multi/inter-disciplinary studies in digital government
8. Normative theoretical approaches to digital government
9. New theoretical frameworks drawn from various disciplines
10. Application of new theories to the digital government domain
11. Innovative theoretical frameworks to study normative and regulative challenges associated to the adoption of emerging technologies in the public sector
12. Theory building challenges and opportunities in digital government research

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Elin Wihlborg (Primary Contact)
Linköping University
elin.wihlborg@liu.se

Antonio Cordella
London School of Economics and Political Science
a.cordella@lse.ac.uk

Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska
University of Warsaw
m.roszczynska@uw.edu.pl