Creando la "ciudad simbiótica"una propuesta para el diseño participativo interdisciplinar y la construcción colaborativa de sistemas de software cívico

Abstract

The idea of Internet being used to improve the democratic operation of our political systems is as old as the Internet itself, but its realization remains today at an embryonic stage, limited as much by technical problems as by a lack of political will. Academic research, meanwhile, has been aligned with the agenda of government actors and has studied and promoted mostly a kind of ‘top-down’ citizen participation experiences, whose transformative and enlightening potential is very limited. This doctoral dissertation performs, first, a critical analysis of the major conceptual, methodological and technical advances obtained so far in the public participation and digital democracy fields. By means of a cross-disciplinary research approach, that combines insights from ethnographic research and the Systems Engineering and Political Sociology fields, a series of field work and applied experiments were performed. They laid the foundations for the development of conceptual models capable to apprehend emancipated forms of digital participation. On that basis, the dissertation develops a reference framework for the collaborative design and construction of Civic Software platforms that suit the needs of all affected stakeholders. This methodology will guide future applied research with high potential to link the academic research with its application to the social environment in a synergic way