Welcome to the inaugural issue of The CeD Journal.
The Journal is the Centre for e-Democracy’s bi-annual publication profiling current and ongoing research projects focused on the role and impact of digital technologies on e-Democracy and government today.
If you’re interested in contributing an article to an upcoming issue, please contact us.
Featured Articles ? January 2015
Strengthening e-Democracy for Better Open Government
E-democracy has become a vital component of Canada’s vision for open government. Engaging citizens with the help of digital media is a pillar of the federal government’s Open Government Action Plan. The plan itself is a cluster of commitments presented to the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international initiative with the mandate to improve transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in countries internationally using digital media.
Featured Articles ? January 2015
Taking Protest to the Twitterverse: Making Sense of New Forms of Political Action on Social Media
The last five years have been marked by the emergence of a new breed of social-media fuelled grassroots protest challenging the dominance of political elites locally, nationally, and internationally. Whether it is the #idlenomore movement in Canada, the student-led demonstrations in Chile, the global #Occupy movement or, more recently, the youth-led protest in Hong Kong, they have mobilized narrow segments of the public and succeeded in forcing elected officials, governmental agencies, and other political players to acknowledge their presence. In specific cases, they were able to influence some facets of governmental decision-making. We believe these mobilization initiatives constitute the materialization of transformative political action that is likely to gain traction in the near future.
Featured Articles ? January 2015
The Impact of Digital Technology on First Nations Participation and Governance
There is growing interest among local governments to adopt digital technologies for elections, community consultation and decision-making. Alongside Canadian municipalities First Nations communities appear to be one of the early adopters of such technologies. These communities are optimistic about the promise of digital technology as a means of overcoming physical barriers to participation in rural northern communities and improving the inclusiveness of local government. First Nation leaders are also interested in the capacity these technologies offer for community consultation of off-reserve members who may not have the same access to voting as those living on-reserve.
Featured Articles ? January 2015
Canada should be leading, not lagging, on public data
Canada is folding just when it should be doubling down on data. The replacement of the long-form census has been the highest profile instance of reduced capacity. Serious problems with the foreign temporary work program have been the highest profile consequence of poor data. These are not isolated incidents, but are the manifestation and outcome of intentional choices designed to weaken evidence-based policy making in favour of spin-based policy making. If one eliminates the ability to measure a problem, who’s to say it even exists? It becomes your word against ours. Such short-term partisan politicking will have long-term negative consequences, not only for policy making, but for Canada’s economy and society more broadly.
