E-government and moral citizenship: the case of Estonia
2016 (English)In: Citizenship Studies, ISSN 1362-1025, E-ISSN 1469-3593, Vol. 20, no 6-7, p. 914-931Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The present article concerns Estonian e-government, that is, the digitalization of government and public administration, and the way e-government produces a moral citizen. Although several case studies on e-government exist, they have seldom been sensitive to the local conditions shaping the functions and social meaning of digitalization. E-government involves producing knowledge, and the present article draws on a theoretical perspective that stresses the tight relationship between knowledge and power. In Estonia, the power–knowledge regime is characterized by centralization. Centralization is the condition for a firm national e-government policy, and within this policy, an image of the unique Estonian citizenry is produced. The Estonian moral citizen who emerges out of e-government is de-politicized and detached from a social context, on the one hand, and strongly politicized and attached to a specific ethno-national community, on the other.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 20, no 6-7, p. 914-931
Keywords [en]
e-government, Estonia, Moral citizenship, post-communist conditions, power–knowledge regime
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Politics, Economy and the Organization of Society; Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-30811DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2016.1213222ISI: 000381500300015Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84980350907Local ID: 584/42/2012OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-30811DiVA, id: diva2:957170
Part of project
Like Fish in Water? Surveillance in Post-Communist Sociteies, The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies
Funder
The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, A051-20122016-09-012016-09-012021-01-18Bibliographically approved