The paper examines the cases of technology-mediated assertion of citizenship in Ukraine and Belarus in 2020-2022. Through the lens of the theory of socio-technical systems, the citizenship agency is described in terms of choice, voice, and engagement: choice of performing citizenship under pressure; use of technology to raise the voices of civil society, build up the cooperation networks and engage others in the proactive problem-solving. This chapter presents a case study of citizen practices in Ukraine and Belarus that illustrate how citizen acts of engagement, cooperation, and creation of technology-empowered services affect the social and political agenda in both countries. Such an analysis aims to shed light on the transformation of citizen agency in post-Soviet societies and the role of citizen engagement in changing the course of the Russian war for domination in the region.  The paper explores relational and performative perspectives of technology-mediated citizen participation in the realm crossing civil society, policymaking, and defence. The case of Ukraine explains how citizens’ technology-mediated participation contributes to resisting Russian aggression in terms of engagement in local communities involving national defence. Citizen activation, using digital technologies in cooperation with authorities matters critically for the collective reconstruction of the country after the war, on the one hand, and for developing an active civil society essential for strengthening of their democratic institutions, on the other. The case of Belarus reveals some signs on how the civil society creates and protects citizenship agency in adverse and repressive conditions, through strategies, tools and services parallel to- or replacing the authoritarian institutions. Our analysis of technology-enabled cooperation between Belarusian civil society in exile and those inside Belarus contributes to understanding of global citizenship mediated by technologies

This paper maps and unpacks the discursive construction of digital citizenship within the institution of public libraries in Sweden, situating it within the broader context of the nation’s digital government. By adopting a discursive approach, the paper responds to the scholarly call for nuanced theoretical insights into the evolving digital citizenship field and reflects upon how an analysis on digital citizenship can further our understanding of digital government. Data sources are the Swedish National Digitalization Strategy, the Swedish Library Act, and library staff interviews.

Findings show active citizenship as a central idea in the discourse, placing high demands on individuals. In contrast to previous research, this study also finds ideas of a more inclusive citizenship. Finally, the findings show conflicts and ongoing negotiation of what digital citizenship, and thus digital citizens, ought to be, and point towards a need of deepening and questioning our understanding of digital government as inclusive.  

Regional conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including the Belarusian political crisis in 2020 and the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine in 2022, have exposed the new potential of digital technology use for the engagement of society in all forms of service production, resistance, and mobilization. Against the background of digitalization reforms and increased general digital literacy of the population, the West's support for civic education in the region has contributed to the formation of a new generation of activists familiar with digital tools and platforms and, in general, to the creation of a favourable environment for the development of civic initiatives using digital technologies. This can be seen in the emergence of online platforms and digital tools which facilitate civic engagement and allow a wider audience to participate in the democratic process. For example, online petitions, social media campaigns, and digital activism have become increasingly prevalent, particularly among young people, in Belarus (see Astapova et al, 2022; Titarenko, 2022) and in Ukraine (Diuk, 2012; Bohdanova, 2014). Specifically, as Pospieszna and Galus (2020) note, the evaluation of a long-term civic education programme for young people from post-Soviet countries suggests that training experiences can lead to changes in line with democratic values and practices. Investment in social and human capital by Western donors, particularly in Belarus and Ukraine (Pospieszna and Galus, 2020; Pospieszna et al, 2023), has been of particular importance for fostering a vibrant civil society as a key element in promoting democratic change (see Chapter 2, this volume)

This study explores the adaptation to automation in social services, focusing on organizational challenges and skill dynamics to enhance workforce competencies. Using a sociotechnical systems perspective, it examines social workers’ responses to implementing robotic process automation for decision-making. The analysis highlights a shift towards high-skilled labor, requiring advanced digital and interpersonal skills that can lead to job polarization and routine task automation. Key organizational challenges include resistance to automation, ethical considerations, and the need for effective communication and training. These findings emphasize the complexity of integrating automation in the public sector, necessitating transparent and inclusive strategies to build trust among employees and clients. Additionally, the study highlights competence challenges in ‘shrinking’ municipalities, pointing to the need for continuous skill development and organizational restructuring amidst technological advancements.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine interrupted the processes of digital reformation of the state which had been started after 2014 in favor of European integration and further democratic development. Nevertheless, nationwide digitalization had not slowed down in 2022-2023, and the Ukrainian government continued the path of digital transformation of public services. Blackouts and infrastructure damage created significant barriers, but simultaneously, the government's inability to refer to new challenges immediately activated civil society. Civic activists started cooperating to help local authorities deliver services to citizens, especially those which could not meet their new needs related to the war, such as the formation of databases of new vulnerable groups’ needs and the creation of platforms for mutual help. The paper considers how the processes of digital services provision were changed in times of war, highlighting the new role of civil mobilization by using technology, and discusses implications for research and peaceful practice.

Utställningen ”Medborgarskap & digitalisering” gestaltar i olika media de digitala utmaningar vi som medborgare möter i vardagen och har hämtat inspiration från forskning som bedrivs vid LiU av forskargruppen DINO. 

DINO - Digitalisering i nya offentligheter vid Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling (IEI) - studerar hur digitalisering av offentliga tjänster påverkar oss som samhällsmedborgare. Forskargruppen undersöker digitaliseringens effekter på det offentliga samtalet och hur offentliga tjänster görs tillgängliga på nya sätt. En viktig del av deras forskning är också att studera vilka som riskerar att hamna utanför och varför. 

I många fall blir folkbibliotek ett slags stödfunktion i vardagliga situationer när teknik inte fungerar eller inte är tillgänglig så att medborgare kan agera som aktiva aktörer i samhället. DINO:s studier av de frågor om digitala problem som besökare på biblioteken kommer med har visat att dessa problem påverkar människors möjligheter att agera som medborgare. Det kan till exempel handla om att hantera olika e-tjänster, såsom att boka en tid på vårdcentralen, att betala räkningar, att söka jobb, eller att hantera sitt busskort för att åka kollektivtrafik. 

Med utgångspunkt i denna forskning presenterar utställningen olika situationer och händelser kopplade till vardagens digitala utmaningar.

Belarus and Ukraine embarked on digitalisation relying on an international experience. Ukraine experienced difficulties in building infrastructure and connecting their regions and faced challenges in providing training and raising citizen awareness on advantages of the digital services. Yet, the digitalization reform proceeded from the principles of citizen-centeredness and e-participation. Belarus, on the contrary, was quick in building the basic infrastructure and training their public officials. However, the e-government was oriented rather on technical aspects and inter-sectoral communication, than on the needs of the citizens. Despite the differences in both cases, the level of trust, the basic prerequisite for the quality e-services, has been low (Ukraine) or non-existent (Belarus). This paper uses multi-method approach to examine citizen trust and their adoption of e-services in developing political or administrative regime contexts that are characterized by low trust, variable digital literacy, and variable access to information. A key finding is that in both countries it was the historical legacy of access to free services, that was one of the barriers to building a sustainable and reliable system of e-services. However, while Ukraine started to improve their infrastructure and building trust towards digital services during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Belarus the authorities’ ineffective management of the pandemic has led to sharp decrease in trust towards authorities. As a result, rudiments of an alternative system of public-services’ delivery, based on the people-to-people model, have been launched by the civil society.

eGovernment continues to expand in the Swedish welfare state. Sweden aims to “become world leader in harnessing the opportunities of digital transformation” (Government Offices of Sweden, 2017 p.1), and is highly ranked in indexes measuring digital development such as UN’s e-Government Development Index and EU’s Digital Society and Economy Index. Digital development is still partly understood as ‘neutral’ and ‘progressive’. However, previous research on eGovernment and related fields have highlighted that governmental policies, institutions, and services are embedded in ideological imaginaries, which challenges the idea of technology as being value-neutral and without ideology (Schuilenburg & Peeters, 2020; Hintz et al., 2019; Verdegem & Fuchs, 2013). Still fewer have focused on questions about what citizenship ideals are imagined and pursued based on ideological grounds of eGovernment. A recent literature overview (Chen et al. 2021) has found that there is a lack of critical perspectives in digital citizenship studies. However, Isin and Ruppert (2020) offer a critical conceptualization of digital citizenship, that challenges the dominating conceptualizations which focus on internet-usage (Mossberger et al. 2007) and digital literacy (Ribble, 2015). While Isin and Ruppert (2020) argue that digital citizens come to existence through imaginary, legal, and performative dimensions, Mejer (2012) brought to discussion the prospective of a new type of citizen-driven production of public benefits that would transcend the traditional state-led welfare structures.  

This paper answers to the call for more critical perspectives on digital citizenship, by identifying and unpacking the imagined ideals of digital citizenship in the Swedish digital welfare state. Inspired by Isin and Ruppert’s (2020) conceptualization, Laclau & Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory, and Schou and Hjelholt’s (2017) citizenship framing in the Danish context, this paper identifies and unpacks imagined citizen ideals by analysing imaginary, legal, and performative dimensions of the Swedish digital welfare state. Data for the imaginary dimension consists of the Swedish national digitalization strategy (Government Offices of Sweden, 2017). Data for the legal dimension consists of the Swedish Library Act (‘Bibliotekslag’ SFS 2019:961). Lastly, data for the performative dimension and imaginary dimension is gathered from 11 Swedish municipal libraries, including observations of daily citizen-interactions regarding digital issues collected in 2019, and interviews with library staff collected in 2022. Libraries are one of the primary public organizations which facilitate digital motivation, access, competence, and usage (van Dijk, 2020) in Sweden (Bernhard et al., 2019; Mersad, 2019), and where citizens are assisted in claiming their citizenship rights in a digital society (Gustafsson et al., 2020).  

This paper contributes to eGovernment and digital citizenship studies by investigating the Swedish case and by identifying and unpacking specific imagined ideals to move beyond digital citizenship as an “catch-all phrase to describe an ideal” (Becker, 2019). This paper also enables comparison with the Danish case, which both are characterized by the Nordic welfare state model but also vary in terms of approaches to digital transformation. The contribution is both empirical and theoretical by investigating the Swedish case and expanding critical conceptualizations of digital citizenship. 

The purpose of this chapter is to identify and analyze key tensions in the governance, the management, and the organization of RPA-practices in public services. Key tensions will be analyzed in an agency–structure framework and using empirical data on introduction of RPA-tools in income support services in three Swedish municipalities. The analysis will be guided by two research questions: what tensions underly RPA-integration by actors in their practices; and how these tensions can be understood based on an agency–structure framework. The findings discuss issues such as coordination dilemmas in decentralized structures, different interpretations of the legal frames, standardization versus individualization logics of the profession, trust versus control mechanisms, but also elements of municipal innovation and accommodation of case processing when RPA is integrated into income support services.

There is a demand for systematic assessments of actual impacts of au-tomation of decision and case management in public services. The aim of the paper is to investigate how effectiveness and quality aspects are considered in public services that are introducing automation, based the case of Income support in four Swedish municipalities. Based on empirical evidence from reported sta-tistics and qualitative interviews and observations, the study found that munici-palities using RPA scored higher on quality indicators and user satisfaction. In-crease of resource spending showed in three of the municipalities, regardless they use or not RPA. Among the qualitative effects we found mutual changes between the RPA-integration and adjustments and the organization of work and exercise of authority.