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A Study of Actors' Translations of Digitalisation in Public Administration 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 ii 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 iii iv 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 v 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 vi 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 vii 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 ............................................................................................................
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