E-Governance in European and South African Cities

The Cases of Barcelona, Cape Town, Eindhoven, Johannesburg, Manchester, Tampere, The Hague and Venice

Leo van den Berg, Andre van der Meer, Willem van Winden, Paulus Woets

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351159142
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Since the late 1990s, city councils have become increasingly aware of the potential for information technologies (ICTs) to improve the management of cities and as an instrument for economic and social policy. This has resulted in a wave of urban ICT strategies and policies, such as the adoption of ICTs within the city administration itself, projects that facilitate access to ICTs by weaker social groups and policies to improve the urban electronic infrastructure. By comparing eight cities - Barcelona, Cape Town, Eindhoven, Johnnesburg, Manchester, Tampere, the Hague and Venice - this book examines a range of innovative urban e-governance strategies and develops a framework of analysis that permits a common approach. Throughout the book, a distinction is made between access policies (aimed at improving access to ICTs for all citizens), content policies (directed to improve the use of ICTs in the city administration and semi-public domains) and infrastructure policies (to improve the provision of broadband infrastructure). For each of the cities, e-strategies and policies are critically reviewed and compared. The book reveals that urban e-strategies have evolved from an internal and technology-centred orientation to a more outward-looking approach.

Chapter 1
Introduction

The information society entails a number of fundamental changes, many of which manifest themselves in cities. These changes affect urban structures (Castells, 1996; Hall, 1998), forms (van den Berg, 1987; Mitchell, 1999), economies (Hall, 1998; Storper, 1996; Thrift, 1996) and societies (Castells, 1996; Sassen, 2001). The development and application of ICTs (information and communication technologies) lies at the heart of these transformations. ICTs can be described as the melting of computer technology, telecommunications, electronics and media (van Rijsselt and Weijers, 1997). Examples of new ICTs are the personal computer, but also the Internet, mobile telephone, cable television and electronic payment systems are included. In the last decade, innovations in communications and information technology have been introduced at rapid speed (Castells, 1996; Forrester, 1993).

There is a growing literature about the way ICTs are changing cities. In this book, we want to contribute to this debate. In our approach, we intend to move away from the abstract macro-idea of ‘the information society’ and instead stress diversity and the ‘local colour’ of the information society, on the urban level. This approach includes the newer strands of technology research in social sciences that focus on the context-dependency of the uptake of technologies. New technologies do not fall out of the sky into a homogeneous landscape and then change it completely: their development and application is embedded in existing economic, institutional, social and spatial structures, and changes them in rather subtle ways.

The focus in this book is on Internet-related technologies and services, as they are relatively new and have the profoundest social and economic implications. Our starting point is that, for a number of reasons, the manifestation of the ‘information society’ varies considerably from city to city. To reveal this diversity, we developed a conceptual framework that helps us to unravel the local colour of the information society in cities. We make a distinction between three manifestations of the information revolution: local electronic content, local access to new technologies and local electronic infrastructure. We suggest that the interaction between the three manifestations drives the dynamics of the local information society. We also suggest how policy – on several levels – might influence these dynamics.

The second part of the book is about ICT policy in a number of cities. The case studies show major differences in policy orientation, reflecting different policy priorities. They also reveal the importance of the national economic, political and legal contexts as determinants of the shape of the local information society. In this book, we explicitly address the role of private ICT companies, with a focus on the impact of investment decisions of telecom firms on the local endowment of electronic infrastructure.

This book is based on an international comparative study into ‘e-governance’ strategies. In eight cities we have studied local ICT policies. Our case studies were Barcelona (Spain), Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), Eindhoven and The Hague (The Netherlands), Manchester (United Kingdom), Tampere (Finland) and Venice (Italy). For our purposes (showing and analysing the variety of local manifestations and policies of the information society), this is a good sample of cities. They are located in different countries, which may reveal the importance of the national context. They differ considerably in economic structure and performance. Some are very specialized, albeit in different sectors (e.g. Venice in tourism, The Hague in administrative functions), others have a more diversified economy. As could be expected, each of the cities has its particular focus in ICT policy. However, all the cities share a relatively high ambition level and high expectations of ICT policies.

For each of the cities, we started with an analysis of the available information on the local ICT situation and official ‘e-strategy’ documents. After that, in each of the cities we have interviewed a number of government officials responsible for the local ICT policy as well as private companies that are involved in the implementation of the policies. Also, we have interviewed ordinary citizens to hear their opinion as ‘policy receivers’.

Organization of the Book

This book is organized as follows. In Chapter 2, we present a conceptual framework in which to analyse the local manifestation of the information society. Also, the concept of e-governance is introduced and elaborated. The subsequent chapters (3–10) describe and analyse local e-governance practices in our case cities. Finally, Chapter 11 synthesises the findings, compares the case studies and draws conclusions.

References

Castells, M. (1996), The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol. 1, Blackwell, Oxford.

Forrester, T. (1993) Silicon Samurai: How Japan Conquered the world Information Technology Industry, Blackwell, Oxford.

Hall, P. (1998), Cities in Civilization: Culture, Innovation and Urban Order, Weidenfield and Nicolson, London.

Mitchell, W.J. (1999), ‘Equitable Access to the Online World, in High Technology and Low-income Communities’, in D.A.B. Schön, A.B. Sanyal and W.J. Mitchell (eds), Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Sassen, S. (2001), ‘Debates and Developments – Impact of Information Technologies on Urban Economies and Politics’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25 (2), pp. 411–18.

Storper, M. (1996), ‘The World of the City: Local Relations in a Global Economy’, mimeo, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California.

Thrift, N. (1996), ‘New Urban Eras and Old Technological Fears: Reconfiguring the Goodwill of Electronic Things’, Urban Studies 33 (8), pp. 1463–93.

Van den Berg, L. (1987), Urban Systems in a Dynamic Society, Aldershot, Gower.

Van Rijsselt, R.T.J. and Weijers, T.C.M. (1997), ‘Ouderen en de informatiesamenleving. Een verkenning van opvattingen over aansluiting en uitsluiting’, Werkdocument 60, Rathenau Instituut.

Chapter 2
Framework of Reference

1 Introduction

This chapter introduces a framework of reference with the help of which the cases will be analysed. The framework is based on a literature review. In the framework we make a distinction between three types of ‘footprint’ of ICTs in urban areas: access (elaborated in section 2); content (section 3); and infrastructure (section 4). These ‘footprints’ interact with each other (section 5). Section 6 discusses the role of local governments and introduces the concept of e-governance.

2 Electronic Access

The first and most basic manifestation concerns the degree of access to technologies by the (various segments of) the urban population. Access to ICT has several dimensions. It includes not only the ownership of hardware devices, but also the capabilities to use information technologies, and access to the Internet (SCP, 2000; Mitchell, 1999a). On several geographical levels, we can witness varying degrees of access to new technologies. On a global scale, there is a digital divide between the developed world and the developing world (Vlam and Westra, 2002). Within countries (both developing and developed), there are substantial differences between large cities and rural areas, but also among large cities (DTI, 2000). Within cities, finally, there are large differences between districts (Graham, 2000). There is now a rich and growing literature on the determinants of access to technology (see van den Berg and van Winden, 2002, for an overview). Most accounts point at education levels and income as key factors. SCP (2000) found that the adoption of PCs and the Internet was positively related to cognitive, social and material resources of individuals.

3 Electronic Infrastructure

The second manifestation of the information society in cities is the electronic infrastructure. The various types of infrastructures (copper, coaxial lines, wireless networks, fibre-optic lines) can be regarded as the transportation system carrying the bits and bytes of the information society. The infrastructure landscape in cities has changed dramatically in the last decade. Most notably, the number of electronic infrastructure networks has increased (several new mobile networks have been put in place in the last decade, but also high-bandwidth fixed lines and satellite-based systems). Second, the spatial differences in infrastructure endowment have become wider, due to telecom markets liberalization and a declining prevalence of universal service obligations. The quality and availability of electronic infrastructure differs both within and between cities. Typically, because of market size, larger cities are better endowed than smaller cities or rural areas and within cities richer neighbourhoods and business districts have better infrastructures than poor neighbourhoods. In this perspective, Graham (1998) notes the emergence of premium network spaces. These are very localized areas in large cities (like London’s financial district) that have superior connections both internally and also with similar places in other cities. For the location of business, particularly information-intensive service companies, the quality of broadband access is a major location factor (Healey and Baker, 2001). Broadband is different from ‘narrowband’ dial-up access in two important respects: first, it offers more capacity, and second, most broadband technologies entail an ‘always on’ connection: the user does not need to dial into a network, but is always online.

Table 2.1 Speed of connection of different modes

	Download	Upload
ISDN	One way: 128 Kbps; Both ways: 64 Kbps	One way: 128 Kbps; Both ways: 64 Kbps
Power line	1 Mbps–2 Mbps	1 Mbps–2 Mbps
DSL	6-8 Mbps max	640 Kbps
Cable	27 Mbps	2.5 Mbps
Fibre optic	50 Mbps–20 Gbps	50 Mbps–20 Gbps

Source: BDRC (2001).

4 Electronic Content

As a third manifestation, we discern the quality and availability of local electronic content. What is local content? We define it as electronically available information, interactive services or other web content related to or concerned with a specific locality. Examples of local content are the local newspaper on the Internet, websites on the traffic situation in the city, information about events in the city, or the electronic services that the local administration offers to its citizens. It also includes the websites of firms or institutes that primarily serve a local market, such as community organizations, education institutes and non-profit organizations. Finally, it includes local virtual communities, such as self-help groups, newsgroups etc. As we will show in our final synthesis chapter, our case cities differ widely in the quality and quantity of local content. City administrations play a large role in the determination of the quantity and quality of local content, as they are one of the most important ‘suppliers’ of it. But also, much depends on the local ‘organizing capacity’ of individual sectors to use the Internet as a new medium to communicate with clients or as a marketing tool.

5 Interaction and Dynamics

Cities are different in terms of content, access and infrastructure. Nevertheless, there are commonalities in the way each of the three ‘manifestations’ have an impact on each other. There are strong indications that the three local manifestations of the information society are interdependent and sometimes mutually reinforcing (see Figure 2.1). We suggest that its dynamics can be represented as a local ‘digital flywheel’, which functions as follows. If there are more ICT users (access) in a city, it becomes more interesting for companies or any other actors to develop new services (content). For instance, online grocers normally start their activities in areas where Internet penetration is highest. Alternatively, more (or better) electronic services (content) may increase the number of local users. If there are better online products or se...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Framework of Reference
• 3 The Case of Barcelona
• 4 The Case of Cape Town
• 5 The Case of Eindhoven
• 6 The Case of Johannesburg
• 7 The Case of Manchester
• 8 The Case of Tampere
• 9 The Case of The Hague
• 10 The Case of Venice
• 11 Synthesis: Comparing E-Governance in Cities
• Index