Description

There is a critical need to integrate digital technologies into local governance to enable effective citizen participation in planning and decision-making processes. Without understanding the governance and participatory context fully, Local Digital Twins (LDTs) risk lacking legitimacy, trust, and real-world impact, resulting in isolated and expensive technical models. To address this challenge, the proposed solution involves exploring the intersection of digital technologies and local governance. This approach aims to enhance citizen involvement by synthesizing current knowledge, identifying best practices, and analyzing roadblocks. Community informatics, urban living labs, and e-government in municipalities play crucial roles in building participatory frameworks. The learning unit explores how digital technologies are reshaping relationships between citizens and local governments, focusing on participatory e-planning and e-government models. It examines community informatics for social empowerment and urban living labs for practical experimentation. The unit also tackles the technological, social, and political challenges of implementing e-participation at the municipal level.