These posts collect and consider recent research on specific issues or dynamics in civic tech. I write these up when I see there’s a batch of relevant research emerging, and which seems worth looking at in aggregate.
Until May 2019, I tried to make roundups comprehensive and regular, rounding up all the civic tech research I could find every week or month. You can still find those posts below.
This is the last effort to round up *all the research*, and it’s packed with findings on participatory budgeting design, e-government transformation and the conditions for responsive and accountable government. You’ll also find meaty overviews of community contributions, methodological deep dives, useful research and a pile of case studies.
This roundup dumps 3 months of links, with evidence that participation boosts, trust and policy satisfaction, but info might not empower communities as we like to think. Plus insights on boosting civic engagement, the state of ICT4D, and lots of useful research for designing open data and government crowdsourcing initiatives.
This month saw a series of research collections guides and databases, plus several assessments of open gov research, and research on what motivates citizens to take action, why M&E is broken, the demand side effects of R2I portals, and lessons from the civic tech graveyard.
Several studies came out in August with evidence for what works and what doesn't work in civic tech, especially regarding anti-corruption programming, open data and institutionalization. Plus there are several important of research collections, how-to methods guides, and oodles of case studies.
Evidence on the drivers of participation, legitimacy in government, social accountability impacts and more in this month of links and findings civic tech research.
Three weeks of civic tech research includes findings on NGOs digital vulnerabilities, why civic tech tools fail in the field and questions about whether there's any point to democracy. Plus, my skeptic's take on the Skeptic's Guide to Open Government.
This week's research roundup has evidence on R2I requests in Uruguay and misinformation around the globe. Plus lots of case studies, and tools and how-tos for field exeriments and constructing empowerment indicators.
This 2 week roundup has lots of evidence on monitoring to reduce bribery and SMS to increase voter information. There's comparative evidence on increasing political trust and decreasing corruption, plus excellent advances on understanding how to get evidence used in policy. Plus a review of open data measurement frameworks.
Civic tech research saw some exciting findings last week, including experimental work on factors affecting civic voice and representation across multiple country and municipal contexts. Also some useful research for advocating feedback within organizations, great research-driven resources for better advocacy and some deep deep weeds on merging human rights databases.
Last week's research roundup has evidence on causes of citizen complaints and parliamentarian responsiveness, plus depressing research on popular trends in human rights advocacy and community driven development. But fear not, there's also frank and optimistic takes on social media, smart new methods for measuring active citizenship and an inspiring story from 18th century abolitionist activism.