Democracy, Deliberation and Design: the case of online discussion forums Export

@inproceedings{citeulike:1043228, abstract = {Within democratic theory, the deliberative variant has assumed pre-eminence. It represents, for many, the ideal of democracy, and in pursuit of this ideal, online discussion forums have been proposed as solutions to the practical limits to mass deliberation. Critics have, however, pointed to evidence which suggests that online discussion has tended to undermine rather than enhance deliberation. This article argues that this claim, which generates a stand-off between the two camps, misses a key issue. This is the role played by design in facilitating or thwarting deliberation. The case proposed here is that political choices are made both about the format and operation of the online discussion, and that this affects the possibility of deliberation. Evidence for the impact of design (and of the choices that behind it) is drawn from analysis of European Union and UK discussion forums. This evidence suggests that we should view deliberation as dependent on design and choice, rather than a pre-determined product of the technology.}, author = {Wright, Scott and Street, J.}, citeulike-article-id = {1043228}, journal = {Political Studies Association Annual Conference}, keywords = {democratie, design, participation}, posted-at = {2007-01-15 20:03:09}, priority = {0}, title = {Democracy, Deliberation and Design: the case of online discussion forums}, year = {2005} }

TY - CONF ID - citeulike:1043228 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1043228 N2 - Within democratic theory, the deliberative variant has assumed pre-eminence. It represents, for many, the ideal of democracy, and in pursuit of this ideal, online discussion forums have been proposed as solutions to the practical limits to mass deliberation. Critics have, however, pointed to evidence which suggests that online discussion has tended to undermine rather than enhance deliberation. This article argues that this claim, which generates a stand-off between the two camps, misses a key issue. This is the role played by design in facilitating or thwarting deliberation. The case proposed here is that political choices are made both about the format and operation of the online discussion, and that this affects the possibility of deliberation. Evidence for the impact of design (and of the choices that behind it) is drawn from analysis of European Union and UK discussion forums. This evidence suggests that we should view deliberation as dependent on design and choice, rather than a pre-determined product of the technology. JF - Political Studies Association Annual Conference TI - Democracy, Deliberation and Design: the case of online discussion forums KW - democratie KW - design KW - participation AU - Wright, Scott AU - Street, J PY - 2005/// ER -