Electronic governance theory tutorial and workshop

Abstract

For any research field to advance it has to have its own 'core' theory and a set of reference disciplines it draws on and contributes to. Thus far it is clear that E-governance research draws primarily on theory and methods developed in the Management Information Systems (MIS) discipline. MIS itself draws on fields such as Computer Science, Economics, Sociology, etc. The theory and methods that any e-governance researcher will rely on will be determined by the problems being addressed and the context in which the problems arise. This tutorial workshop presents an overview of theory used in e-governance research. It then presents an introduction to two richly developed theories in MIS namely - Structuration and Actor-Network theory. The presentations highlight the main ideas of these theories with a view to prompting their increased incorporation in e-governance research. E-governance issues for developing countries is also presented, as these constitute a growing area of research. The workshop features three papers that will form the basis for a discussion on state-of-the-art in e-governance theory. Copyright 2008 ACM.