online community and democracy

Online Community and Democracy

The debate over the contribution of the Internet to democracy is farfrom settled. Some point to the empowering effects of online discussionand fund raising on recent electoral campaigns in the US to argue thatthe Internet will restore the public sphere. Others claim that the Internetis just a virtual mall, a final extension of global capitalism into everycorner of our lives. This paper argues f...

Research to Practice Online: Conditions that Foster Democracy, Community, and Critical Thinking In Computer-Mediated Discussions

Although computer-mediated discussions (CMDs) have the potential to be ideal forums for fostering dialogue, research on listservs and in college composition classes has found that the discourse tends to be dominated by a few individuals, often men, and is sometimes abusive. In contrast, results of our study in a teacher education course revealed that both men and women used a range and a mix of...

From e-Government to Online Deliberative Democracy

The possibilities for promoting an expanded conception of democratic political participation through information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been widely observed. Potential synergies between ICT developments and democratic renewal arise from the two-way, interactive nature of new digital media, and their technical enhancement of citizen capacities to access, produce, distribute,...

Online voting: Boon or bane for democracy?

Estonia is the only country in the world where all voters can vote online in national elections. In the 2015 election, 31% of voters did so. This paper discusses the sociology and politics of online voting in Estonia. I first show that online voting is a partisan project. Liberal, conservative, and social democratic parties support online voting as a way of modernizing the electoral system, whi...

The Drama of Democracy: Contention and Dispute in Community Planning

examines the function of planning in a democracy and establishes a context for analysis. The second portrays planning in Halifax by specifically focusing on two land use dispute case studies. The third examines the governmental, cultural, and ethical variables that manifest themselves in the case studies. The fourth asks how this greater understanding informs our theories of democracy and plann...

Exploring Cooperatives: Economic Democracy and Community Development in Pennsylvania