Sosiale mediers rolle i demokratisk e-deltakelse sett fra politikeres perspektiv

Alfatika Aunuriella Dini disputerer for ph.d.-graden med avhandlingen “Technology Affordance and Constraint Perspectives on Social Media Use in eParticipation : A Case Study in Indonesia” fredag 12. juni 2020.

Hun har fulgt doktorgradsprogrammet ved Fakultet for samfunnsvitenskap, med spesialisering i informasjonssystemer.

Doktorgradsarbeidet er en del av samarbeidet In Search of Balance (ISB) mellom Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) i Indonesia og Universitetet i Agder. Stipendperioden er finansiert av Det norske utenriksdepartement.

Slik oppsummerer Alfatika Aunuriella Dini avhandlingen:

Technology Affordance and Constraint Perspectives on Social Media Use in eParticipation:  A Case Study in Indonesia

This doctoral thesis explains the role of social media within electronic participation (eParticipation) from the perspective of politicians in the Indonesian context using the Technology Affordance and Constraints Theory (TACT) as a lens.

A more in-depth understanding

Previous research findings into citizens’ perceptions of social media in eParticipation have been ambivalent; namely, social media can both encourage and discourage the democratic process depending on where, when, and how it is used.

Furthermore, there is little understanding of the role of social media in influencing decision-making in the democratic process from the politicians’ perspective.

Thus, this doctoral thesis is focused on gaining a more in-depth understanding of the role of social media in eParticipation from perspective of politicians through three main research questions:

(1) How do politicians use social media for eParticipation purposes?

(2) What are the constraints of social media use within eParticipation? And

(3) What are the conditions needed for social media affordance actualization to take place?

The doctoral thesis used a qualitative-interpretive case study approach, guided by TACT, to answer these research questions.

This approach was used to examine social media action potentials (affordances), constraints and facilitating conditions for social media use in eParticipation from the perspective of politicians at three level of Indonesian parliament:

• district
• provincial and
• national.

Theoretical and practical contributions

This doctoral thesis offers theoretical and practical contributions.

From a theoretical perspective, a framework for the feedback loop affordance actualization process provides a conceptualization of unintentional affordance actualization and mindful actualization of new affordances.

Practical contributions include:

1. First, making explicit the role of social media for politicians in eParticipation, both in terms of internal and external social media affordances.
2. Second, the framework can be used to identify social media constraints that can challenge politicians from using social media for eParticipation purposes. Identified constraints can be categorized as: technological, informational, personal, legal and socio-cultural.
3. Third, this thesis identifies any significant facilitating conditions for social media that can have an effect on eParticipation from the perspective of politicians.

Practical implications

This thesis puts forward practical social media implementation strategies for eParticipation that align with eParticipation goals; namely, to improve democratic governance, and encourage inclusion, transparency and participatory outcomes.

Practical implications are categorized as managerial, policy or socio-cultural.

• This thesis first examines how such implementation strategies can be adopted within a similar context in Indonesia.
• Secondly, it acknowledges that supportive regulations are a crucial facilitating condition for social media to be effectively utilized in eParticipation. This thesis suggests, therefore, that the government pay attention to, and adjust any unsupportive regulations that could impede the use of social media by eParticipation stakeholders to support the democratic process.
• Thirdly, in this thesis, strict customary norms are identified as indigenous factors that determine how social media for eParticipation is implemented in a particular setting.

Therefore, context is an important factor when investigating the application and implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a specific setting.

Several limitations are addressed in this thesis where they represent  the direction that future research avenues could take on social media use within an eParticipation framework.

Keywords: Social media, eParticipation, politician, Technology Affordance and Constraint Theory, facilitating condition, Indonesia, Affordance actualization, unintentional actualization, mindful actualization, feedback loop affordance actualization.

Opponent ex auditorio:

Disputasleder inviterer til spørsmål ex auditorio i innledningen i disputasen, med tidsfrister. Disputasleders e-post er tilgjengelig i chat-funksjonen under disputasen. Spørsmål om ex auditorio kan sendes til disputasleder Anne Halvorsen på e-post anne.halvorsen@uia.no

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2656099