The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Direct Deliberative Governance Online : Consensual Problem Solving or Accommodated Pluralism ?

Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Abstract This paper describes and analyses patterns of 'governance conversation' observed in interactions on email lists that aim to support local, direct governance in a geographically co-located community in South Africa. It examines the extent to which governance conversations feature instrumental or expressive dialogue and how they subsequently support consensual or pluralist outcomes. Although each conversation pattern relates to governance, the making of consensual, 'binding decisions', which is usually seen as a key outcome of deliberative democratic processes, is almost entirely absent from the observed interactions. Nonetheless, the exchanges appear to be relevant and useful to the broader process of local direct deliberative governance. The results indicate that online interaction may be particularly suited to facilitating the pluralist deliberation required to manage complex local governance problems. The study points to the potential value of an infrequently investigated context of online deliberation – that of resident-to-resident deliberation on geographically local issues – and presents a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance. This paper reports on an infrequently investigated context of online deliberation – that of resident-to-resident deliberation on geographically local issues. The investigation challenges assumptions of democratic deliberation as mainly policy debate between citizens and government or, at local level, citizen activists holding their local administration to account. It also proposes a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance, where developing consensus and instrumental decision making has frequently been over privileged in previous research. The paper reports on a case study of a small, geographically co-located community of approximately 1500 citizens, focusing on an example of where online deliberation between citizens directly concerns questions of local governance. In this sense, the case study presents an example of "neighbourhood democracy" (Barber, 2003; Leighninger, 2008). However, it should be distinguished from studies of online neighbourhood democracy, or more broadly online deliberative governance, where the research focus is on the interaction of citizens with government, and where policy formulation in its various forms is both key object and output of communication. In this instance, the online discussion spaces were conceived, set up and are maintained entirely as a spontaneous volunteer effort by members of the community; formal …