Abstract
The paper presents the findings of an exploratory empirical study of the e-participation infrastructure available in St. Petersburg municipalities from the media ecosystem perspective. We argue that in order to obtain deeper insights into the evolution of participatory services provided via digital means, there is a need to take a stronger account of the underlying media properties – both in technology and social practice terms – that embed and host e-participation services. While no evidence has been found that e-participation practices have matured enough to form a holistic ecosystem environment of citizen engagement at the municipal level, the media ecology approach applied in this research as a central theoretical frame might have a potential to better explain some of the findings. These are consistent with broader global trends, such as the dominance of information provision and the lack of such more interactive forms of empowerment as cooperation, consultation, participation in policy making that lag significantly behind across municipalities globally. We also have found that the population size of municipalities does not influence the range of available e-participation services.
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Notes
- 1.
It should be noted that the amendments to the Russia’s constitution of 2020 have de-facto eliminated self-governance at the local level, including municipalities.
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Acknowledgment
The research has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) as part of a project № 22–18-00364 «Institutional transformation of e-participation governance in Russia: a study of regional peculiarities».
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Appendices
Appendices
A.1 List of Municipalities
Administrative-territorial status and the number of inhabitants in St. Petersburg municipalities (as of 2021).
Village Serovo village - 281 Settlement Ushkovo settlement -701 Village Smolyachkovo village - 773 Village Komarovo village - 1300 Village Tyarlevo village - 1319 Settlement Petro-Slavyanka settlement - 1390 Settlement Solnechnoye settlement -1586 Settlement Saperny settlement - 1611 Settlement Molodyozhnoe settlement - 1702 Village Ust-Izhora village - 1999 | Obukhov district - 53,374 Moskovskaya Zastava District - 53,640 Polyustrovo district - 54,842 Bolshaya Okhta district - 56,397 Volkovskoye municipal district - 56,917 Uritsk district - 57,726 Vladimirsky district district - 57,768 Knyazhevo district - 59,737 Krasnoe Selo city - 60,029 Lanskoe district - 60,510 |
Settlement Beloostrov settlement - 2301 Village Alexandrovskaya village - 2728 Village Repino village - 2968 Village Lisiy Nos village - 4653 Lakhta-Olgino district - 4825 Levashovo Settlement - 5559 Palace District district - 6761 Settlement Pesochny settlement - 9030 Settlement Pontoon settlement – 9273 Sea Gate district - 10,140 | Rzhevka district - 60,639 Island of the Decembrists district - 61,163 Piskarevka District - 62,241 Sosnovaya Polyana district - 64,461 No. 15 district - 64,663 No. 72 district - 64,868 Rybatskoe district - 65.174 Sosnovskoye district - 67,425 Southwest district - 67,582 Okkervil district - 67,770 |
No. 78 District - 10,873 Village of Strelna village - 14,696 Zelenogorsk city - 15,208 Ligovka-Yamskaya district - 16,194 Pavlovsk city - 17,223 Vvedensky District - 18,888 Kronverkskoe District - 19,559 Aptekarsky Island District - 19,828 Posadsky District - 20,300 Okrug Petrovsky district - 20,793 | Sergievskoe district - 67,803 People’s District - 68,121 Gagarinsky District - 68,531 Nevsky District district - 69,984 No. 54 District - 70,158 Dachnoe district - 71.145 Prometheus district - 73,296 Citizen district - 73,528 Ulyanka district - 74,066 Finlandsky district district - 74,424 |
Sennoy district district - 21,954 Admiralteisky District district - 22,710 Semyonovsky district - 23,223 Yekateringofsky istrict - 24,231 Izmailovskoye district - 26,306 Chkalovsk district - 26,363 Settlement Metallostroy settlement - 30,895 Ivanovsky district - 31,479 Narva District district - 31,574 Vasilyevsky district - 32,763 | Balkan district - 74,639 Smolninskoe district - 75,417 No. 21 district - 78,268 Pravoberezhny District -78,445 Zvezdnoe district - 80,503 Pargolovo settlement - 81,033 Svetlanovskoe district - 84,256 Peterhof city - 84,930 Georgievsky district - 86,666 South Primorsky district - 91,319 |
Gorelovo district - 33,437 Nevskaya Zastava district - 33,818 Marine District - 34,722 Harbor District - 35,997 Konstantinovskoye district - 38,332 Kolomna district - 38,534 Krasnenkaya Rechka district - 40,432 No. 7 district - 40,595 Municipality Sampsonievsky district - 41,411 Lomonosov city - 43,029 | Komendantsky airfield district - 91,736 Novoizmailovskoye district - 92,848 Shushary village - 95,155 Ozero Dolgoe district - 101,876 Academic district - 106,782 Shuvalovo-Ozerki district - 111,347 Pushkin city - 112,978 Yuntolovo district -117,031 Powder District - 136.234 Kolpino city -149,766 No. 65 District -150,364 |
Sestroretsk city - 43,060 Foundry District district - 43,886 Kronstadt city - 44,353 Avtovo District - 44,456 Malaya Okhta District - 47,509 Kolomyagi District - 49,105 Kupchino district - 50,403 No. 75 district - 50,892 Pulkovo Meridian district - 51,500 Northern district - 53,336 | Total: 5,384,342 |
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Misnikov, Y., Filatova, O. (2022). e-Participation as Mediated Ecosystem? A Case Study on Municipalities of St. Petersburg, Russia. In: Meiselwitz, G., et al. HCI International 2022 - Late Breaking Papers. Interaction in New Media, Learning and Games. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13517. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22131-6_7
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