Reassembling Local E-Government: A study of actors' translations of digitalisation in public ...

137 Pages·2017·1.24 MB·English

by  Mariana S Gustafsson

Linköping Studies in Arts and Sciences
Dissertation No. 718
Reassembling Local E-Government:
A study of actors’ translations of digitalisation in
public administration
Mariana S. Gustafsson
Department of Management and Engineering
Linköping University, Sweden
Linköping 2017
Reassembling Local E-Government: A study of actors’ translations of
digitalisation in public administration

Mariana S. Gustafsson, 2017

Published paper has been reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

Printed in Sweden by LiU-Tryck, Linköping, Sweden, 2017

ISBN 978-91-7685-500-3
ISSN 0282-9800

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To my mother and father!

Meno: And how will you search for something, Socrates, when you don’t know what
it is at all? I mean, which of the things you don’t know will you take in advance and
search for, when you don’t know what it is? Or even if you come right up against it,
how will you know that it’s the unknown thing you are looking for?

Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues

The question then is how to get lost. Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how
to get lost brings you to destruction, and somewhere in the terra incognita, in
between, lies a life of discovery… The things we want are transformative, and we
don’t know, or only think we know, what is on the other side of that transformation.

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost

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Acknowledgements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As I’m writing these words, the sun is shining and I’m crying a little. Out of
gratitude. For the opportunity to fulfil a dream: a thirst for more knowledge, a
craving to understand the world we live in. I’m grateful for the possibility to meet
so many extraordinary, bright, and kind people. I’ve had a chance to listen to them,
to talk with them, and to work with them. I’ve been able to learn from them. I’m
deeply thankful to them. As learning and knowledge are transformation, filled with
tensions and anxieties, these people have been with me in different moments along
the way. They have helped me at the crossroads of my journey. They have
contributed in various ways to who I am today.
Elin Wihlborg, it is difficult to express in a few words (and you dislike long
sentences) what you have done in this journey and what it has meant for me. I
know that it has meant a lot. You’ve believed in me. You’ve supported me. You’ve
created opportunities. You’ve helped to solve various problems and shown
possible paths when it was dark. You’ve shown me how to get lost and how to get
found. You’ve had the patience to listen and to help me disentangle my thoughts.
I’m deeply grateful. Bo Persson and Karin Axelsson, you’ve been there for me at
the most important crossroads, with good advice, patience, and constructive
critique. Thank you! Katarina L Gidlund and Karin Hedström, thank you for
commenting on the 90% and 50% versions of my thesis respectively. Your advice,
wise questions, and suggestions have been extremely valuable for the choices I’ve
made in the important milestones along the journey.
I’m also grateful for the chance to work in the field. I’ve met the work group
on the Regional Digital Agenda in Östergötland, and especially the extraordinary
Kira Berg, as well as the different municipal informants. A deep thank you! Thanks
as well to the teachers, pupils, parents, school principals, and educational
administrators from the municipality of Linköping. Without you, this thesis would
have not been possible. My gratitude extends too to the different commenters
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onmy texts from EGPA, SWEPSA, FUN network, IFIP summer school on
international security and privacy, and the various courses. A special thank you to
my colleagues here at political science at IEI for contributing valuable ideas and
perspectives in the five internal seminars specifically dedicated to my research.
A very special thank you to my fellow PhD colleagues. You were and will
always be a part of this special experience: Ida Åberg, Ester Andréasson, Linnea
Eriksson, Mattias Örnerheim, Rickard Öhrvall, PO Hansson, and Johan
Wennström. Aase Marthe Johansen Horrigmo, it was a blessing that I met you and
listened to you. Thank you for those moments of decision when you helped me
(whether realising it or not) to make some choices.
Mother, Father, Liliana and Oxana, Lena and Håkan, thank you for the
extraordinary support in this journey. Finally, to Ludwig, Elin, and David – the
prime meaning of my life – thank you for putting up with me over the past five
years and for reminding me that life is bigger and much more complex than this
thesis. Thank you for loving me when I least deserved it. I love you beyond the
stars.

Linköping, 2017.05.15

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Contents
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. V
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 5
LIST OF PAPERS ............................................................................................................. 7
ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................... 8
I. ADVANCED DIGITALISATION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: POLICY
EXPECTATIONS VERSUS IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES ............................ 9
The Aim and the Research Questions ...................................................................... 14
Outline of the Thesis ................................................................................................ 18
II. DIGITALISATION IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: A LITERATURE
REVIEW .......................................................................................................................... 20
Definitions of E-Government .................................................................................. 21
Evolutionary and Managerial Perspectives on E-Government ................................ 23
Translation and Interpretive Studies of E-Government ........................................... 25
III. TRANSLATION IN GOVERNANCE NETWORKS: A FRAMEWORK FOR
STUDYING TENSIONS ................................................................................................ 30
Network Governance: Institutions as a focus and a frame for explaining change ... 31
From Institutions to Actors’ Interpretations as Drivers for Action and Change ...... 34
Network Governance Analysis in E-Government: Operationalisation .................... 35
From Interpretation to Translation in Networks ...................................................... 36
Critique of the Translation Approach in ANT ......................................................... 39
A Constructivist Approach to Advanced Integration of E-Government.................. 40
Translation Analysis in the Implementation of E-Government:
Operationalisation .................................................................................................... 41
How Can Tensions Be Identified and Analysed? .................................................... 43
IV. THE SWEDISH CASE ............................................................................................. 46
Swedish Local Governance and the Self-Government Principle ............................. 47
Short History of E-Government in Sweden ............................................................. 49
Current National Policies and Agencies in E-Government ..................................... 51
Regional Digital Agenda for Östergötland .............................................................. 52
Why Östergötland is an Interesting Case ................................................................. 53
Swedish Challenges ................................................................................................. 55
V. METHODOLOGY AND MATERIAL ...................................................................... 57
A Constructivist Approach: Interpretation and reflection........................................ 58
Research Design at the Crossroads of Theory and Empirical Material ................... 59
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Empirical Materials Construction ............................................................................ 64
School Study: Interviews, focus groups and observations ................................ 64
RDA Study: Interviews, observations, mapping questionnaire, documents ...... 66
Mapping questionnaire...................................................................................... 67
Documents ......................................................................................................... 68
Interpretive Analysis Methods ................................................................................. 70
Methods of Analysis in the Papers .................................................................... 71
Analysis of the Tensions .................................................................................... 72
Reflections on Ontology and Epistemology ............................................................ 73
VI. SUMMARIES OF THE PAPERS ............................................................................. 75
Safe Online e-Services Building Legitimacy for E-government ............................. 75
Constructing Security: Reflections on the margins of a case study ......................... 76
Constructing Identities: Professional use of eID in public organisations ................ 77
Is Small Always Beautiful? Studying the logics of small units in governance of
digitalisation ............................................................................................................. 78
VII. FOUR FIELDS OF TENSION IN PRACTICE: TRANSLATION AND
GOVERNANCE NETWORK ANALYSES .................................................................. 81
Tensions Related to Actors’ Different Logics and Dilemmas for Adoption and
Implementation of E-Government ........................................................................... 82
Tensions Related to Organising Public Administration and Information Security in
Ambiguous Institutional Arrangements ................................................................... 86
Tensions Related to Professional Use of Digital Platforms versus Users’ Resistance
and Perceptions of Control ....................................................................................... 92
Tensions Related to Security as Purpose and Value, versus Information Security . 96
VIII. REASSEMBLING LOCAL E-GOVERNMENT? CONCLUSIONS AND
DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................ 100
Governance Challenges: Different logics .............................................................. 102
Main Conclusions .................................................................................................. 104
Contribution ........................................................................................................... 105
Further Research .................................................................................................... 105
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 107
APPENDIX A: SCHOOL STUDY ............................................................................... 121
APPENDIX B: RDA STUDY ....................................................................................... 125
APPENDIX C: PAPERS I-IV ....................................................................................... 133

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Abstract
ABSTRACT
The digitalisation of society decidedly affects public administration. Swedish public
administration has long worked with information technologies for an effective and
improved management of public services. But new and increased use of information
technologies in society poses new challenges. New demands on information security are
increasing, while accessibility and transparency are important priorities in policies on
digitalisation in public services. However, the central government’s ambitions and
expectations with regard to digitalisation face a slow and hesitant implementation in local
governments. There are important differences between municipalities in priorities, local
needs, and implementation mechanisms in connection with e-government. In this thesis,
I argue there is a need to reconsider the role of governance mechanisms in e-government.
There is a need to understand local translations of national policies and technological
developments in relation to the goals of more effective and legitimate public
administration. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse tensions that emerge in the
implementation of e-government in local public administration.

On the basis of a constructivist and interpretivist approach, I have undertaken two
empirical studies. One focuses on municipal administration of education in Linköping.
The other focuses on a governance network on digitalisation policy in Östergötland. The
studies are presented in four papers. The issues addressed in the papers are further
analysed with a focus on four fields of tension, using network governance theory and
translation theory. This shows that the implementation of e-government in local public
administration is a tension-laden process. The four fields of tension relate to: different
logics and dilemmas for adoption and implementation; concerns and ambiguities in a
context of unclear organisational and institutional arrangements; concerns and resistance
from professional users; and a reassessment of the meaning of security as a reference for
the interpretation of information security. I contend that established managerial and
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Abstract
evolutionary models of e-government leave important process-related aspects out of the
analysis of change in public administration. The contribution of this thesis lies in its
description and analysis of the four identified fields of tension. One significant
implication of my analysis is that reassembling current governance mechanisms, both in
theory and practice in local public administration is crucial.
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