Mauro Calise

TECHNOPARTIES

Political parties are by far the most adaptive of all political institutions. Over more than two centuries of democratic life, their organizational structure has changed several times, from elitist factions to mass political machines, eventually evolving into a symbiotic relationship with state administration, and functions. However, through all these changes, they have retained their original technological asset: the strength and the leverage of a human network. The impact of Ict is modifying this genetic feature. First radio and television, then social media, have all forced political parties to re-engineer their inner structure. A disruptive innovation whose outcome is hard to envisage, let alone control.

KEYWORDS: Technoparties, Digitalization, Platformization, Leadership.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/101940

Mauro Calise, Valentina Reda

GOVERNING E-LEARNING

In the second decade of the new century, digital education has been spreading fast worldwide through the Mooc revolution: massive, open, online access to top quality academic courses. With the sudden lockdown of over 1.4 billion students, e-learning has become the new normal. This article provides an overview of major drivers of changes in public versus private institutions, in Ict giants versus a myriad of ed-tech startups, in traditional Western universities as well as in Asian hybrid new entries. A late comer in the process of digitalization, e-learning is catching up with major industrial sectors such as e-commerce, e-health, fin-tech, fueled by the same factors of success: globalization, scalability, flexibility. In this new environment the future of education will depend on how fast national governments and international authorities will become aware of the new trends and live up to their disruptive innovations.

KEYWORDS: Mooc, Ed-Tech, Lifelong Learning, Unbundling Universities, Online Public Program Management.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/103799

Mark Brown, Eamon Costello, Enda Donlon

DIGITAL EDUCATION AS SOCIAL PRACTICE: MAJOR TRENDS SHAPING ONLINE LEARNING FUTURES

This paper explores some of the major trends shaping the future of online learning. It asks, what might the future look like? While the paper does not set out to predict the future as the authors do not have a crystal ball, it does endeavour to provide a bigger picture helicopter view of the online learning field. It responds to the tendency to overlook the research literature during the Covid-19 pandemic and aims to help keep the future of online learning in the political spotlight.The paper establishes that defining online learning is not a straightforward task and widespread differences exist in the global use of the term. A critical multifocal perspective is then adopted to identify five macro-level trends which help to frame the analysis from different angles and viewpoints. The discussion covers much ground and draws on a wide range of literature to illustrate how the digital education ecosystem is simultaneously converging, getting larger in scale, more open and closed, and is growing in diversity. Inherent tensions across these contradictory trends demonstrate how online learning needs to be understood in terms of wider societal change forces. Accordingly, the helicopter analysis attempts to steer a path between wider social issues, the language of opportunity, and the need for deeper criticality. Throughout the paper, there is the spirit of hope as educators have considerable agency to help shape possible, probable, and preferred online learning futures.

KEYWORDS: Online Learning, Covid-19, Future Trends, Hybrid Learning, Digital Education

Ecosystem.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/103800

Fortunato Musella

DIGITAL REGULATION: HOW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IS CHANGING

As new technologies have become a core element in public sector reforms in several Western countries, public investments have been mainly concentrated on Icts equipment. Yet, as with all other domains of the digital revolution, the change in hardware in public administration must be matched by new software, with the extensive redefinition of management practices, organizational structures, cultures, and work roles. This article will present the concept of digital regulation, by considering the main fields – and challenges – of its application, such as the internal restructuring of public administration, the design of public services, the establishment and defense of administrative boundaries.

KEYWORDS: Public Administration, Digital Innovation, Organization, Algorithms, Digital Regulation.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/105064

Gianluca Sgueo

THE PARADOX OF «LOW-FI» DIGITAL PUBLIC SERVICES

Electronics for general use – also known as «consumer tech» – are designed to provide instantgratification to their users, primarily via four design features: hyper-velocity (epitomised by shortened delivery time), over-simplicity (embodied by simplified user interfaces, accessible to anyone, regardless of their level of expertise), singularity (exemplified by digital services and products tailored to users’ needs and expectations) and (occasional) free-of-charge access to digital services. Consumer tech’s instant-gratification, however, comes at a cost: a lower average quality of its products and services when compared to their analogical – or professional – counterparts. As consumers, we may accept standardised low-fi technology, and adapt to the trade-off between rapid gratification and lower quality. This compromise, however, becomes unacceptable when we step into the shoes of citizens interacting with public administrations via online platforms or other digital means. Hence, the paradox of low-fi digital public services. Democratic decision-making is antithetical to consumer technology on four grounds. First and foremost, digital democratic spaces must necessarily stay inclusive. Consumer tech instead can be – and often is – exclusive. Second, public regulation is designed for durability, while consumer tech plans its obsolescence. Third, norms and rules are directed to large and undifferentiated communities (with rare exceptions of ad-hoc approaches). Fourth, digital public services differ from consumer tech in terms of reliability. Consumers may always opt out and adopt cheaper alternatives – citizens can’t. Higher complexity, extended duration and lower accessibility are passively accepted by many of us as regards the analogic, offline, public services. However, our acceptance quickly turns into frustration when we relate to, and engage with, digital public services. We expect our digital institutions to be easy to interact with, capable of responding both immediately and effectively to our demands, and possibly in a personalised fashion. In this article I propose to re-conceptualize the aesthetics of digitalised public services. I suggest ownplaying the idea that digital decision-making can only be effective when it delivers rapid and successful responses to the issues of the day, regardless of its complexity. I propose three actions to sustain highly performing digital government: first, elaborate a storytelling approach to digital government that shifts the focus from immediacy to complexity; second, frame digital public spaces with a focus on the interactions, not the outcomes; third, and finally, encourage civic engagement through creative approaches (through game-design elements, for instance).

KEYWORDS: Design, Digital, Government, Performance, Public Sector.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/105065

Federica Cacciatore, Fabrizio Di Mascio, Alessandro Natalini

TELEWORKING OR SMART WORKING? INSIGHTS FROM ITALIAN REGULATORY AGENCIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This research examines the switch to teleworking due to social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. It focuses on a sample of Italian regulatory agencies that are autonomous from central government. Findings highlight that autonomy matters, meaning that teleworking in regulatory agencies has followed patterns that differ from those in place in central government. Drawing on the historical institutionalist approach, the empirical analysis shows that teleworking was already practiced in these organizations before the Covid-19 emergency. It also reveals a picture of variation in the impact of the pandemic on patterns of teleworking across regulatory agencies due to the legacy of actions undertaken in the past

Lucio Todisco, Paolo Canonico, Gianluigi Mangia, Andrea Tomo, Pasquale Sarnacchiaro

STRENGTHENING DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: CIVIL SERVANTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In recent decades, digital transformation processes have enabled unprecedented dissemination and access to information in society, and previously unimaginable levels of participation and interaction by citizens. This sudden process of change, facilitated by new technologies, has also caused significant transformations in public organizations, impacting both processes and the relationship with citizens. Public administrations are increasingly relying on different types of social media, such as microblogs, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms to improve relations between the public sector and citizens, ensure new forms of content sharing, and increase the participation and collaboration of citizens themselves. This rapid organizational change has also impacted how public employees work and perceive their administrations and has sparked new interest in whether, and how, digital platforms improve internal processes and facilitate the work of managers and public employees. This paper explores the effectiveness of implementing and using digital platforms in the public sector, with a specific focus on the role that social media can play in improving public decisionmaking processes and the quality of public services. We used a structured questionnaire to ask Italian public employees about the potential of, and critical issues around, social media use in the public sector. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The paper has two main objectives. From a theoretical point of view, this paper enriches the literature on the use of new technologies in the public sector, expanding the discussion regarding organizational changes generated by the ongoing digital transformation and decision-making processes in public administration. Secondly, the paper highlights the key aspects that influence the effectiveness and usefulness of social media in decision-making and the impact they have on public services offered to citizens, and thus provides valuable reflections on the managerial levers to be used for practical implementation in the public context.

KEYWORDS: Public Sector, Digital Platforms, Decision-Making, Processes, Digital Transformation.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/105069

Armando Vittoria

TOWARDS A LEGAL-DIGITAL BUREAUCRACY?

The digital transition suggests a paradigm shift for the public sector: new institutional arrangements as well as new cultural codes. The real challenge for the so-called platform bureaucracy is therefore a «connection» strategy with the social demand for public innovation, to enhance the potential for modernization that digital transition involves, but without yielding to the logic of populism. The public sector digital transition is undoubtedly achieving promising results for administrative processes in terms of efficiency and institutional rationality. Far beyond the triumphalism proposed by a certain neo-liberal rhetoric, a few critical aspects still persist, first with regard to the effect that the digital transition is having on one of the significant problems that besets the public sector: public corruption. Are we really overcoming, via digital transition, the paradigm of classical bureaucratic legitimacy? Is a new digital rationality for administration leading to a convergence, on both the supply and demand sides of administration, on a new digital rationality undermining bureaucratic particularism? In short, how is the digital transition impacting on public corruption? The paper seeks to answer these questions by addressing the area of administrative transparency – between publicity and social accountability – in the Italian public sector. After an assessment of the scholarship, it tries to outline a framework for the effects of the digital transition on corruption, using as a case-study the new forms of digital governance within the tax control agencies.

KEYWORDS: Corruption, Digitalization, Platform Bureaucracy, Italy, Digital Rationality.

LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/105070