Abstract
Cities are facing major challenges and the expansion of citizen participation has been considered a valuable strategy. Citizen participation experiences supported by information and communication technologies (ICT), the so-called eParticipation, have taken hold in cities around the world. In this chapter, we discuss some of the enabling and inhibiting elements for the creation of virtual spaces for participation by governments in a developing country of Latin America—Brazil. A list of enabling and inhibiting elements grouped in five dimensions was produced from a survey with Brazilian experts, including public officials, academic researchers, and consultants involved with the implementation of eDemocracy projects. To contribute to smart city initiatives in developing countries, interviews were made with the chief information officers (CIOs) of four major cities in Brazil—Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, and Campinas. We found out that the enablers are concentrated in the sociocultural and technological dimensions, while the inhibitors are mainly in the political and governance dimensions. The enabling elements are, for the most part, external to the sphere of action of city information and communication technologies (ICT) managers. As far as inhibiting elements are concerned, even though they pose broad challenges that may be perceived to be beyond the reach of the leaders of eParticipation initiatives, there is more scope for managerial action.
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Notes
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Population estimate 2013, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—IBGE www.cidades.ibge.gov.br/xtras/home.php.
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Average exchange rate July 2011 and GDP base year 2011, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—IBGE, available at www.cidades.ibge.gov.br/xtras/home.php.
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Municipal HDI base year 2010, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—IBGE, available at www.cidades.ibge.gov.br/xtras/home.php.
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In June 2013, several popular demonstrations occurred in the major cities, and they were the largest since the re-democratization period of 1982−1985. The movement was called out spontaneously through social media, without a formal leadership.
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Law 12.527, sanctioned by the President in 18 November, 2011, with the purpose of regulating the constitutional right of citizen’s access to public information. The rules of the law are applicable to the three powers of the Union, States, Federal District and Municipalities.
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Data from the National Telecommunication Agency—Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel)—shows that in Brazil the number of mobile phones in January 2014 was 272.4 million or 136.99 phones per 100 inhabitants (available from http://sistemas.anatel.gov.br/SMP/Administracao/Consulta/AcessosPrePosUF/telaConsulta.asp).
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de Mello Miranda, P., Viegas Cortez da Cunha, M., Pugas Filho, J. (2016). eParticipation in Smart Cities of Developing Countries: Research-Based Practical Recommendations. In: Gil-Garcia, J., Pardo, T., Nam, T. (eds) Smarter as the New Urban Agenda. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17620-8_17
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