Summary and outlook

Abstract

The European collaborative research project e2democracy provided an opportunity to study three different types of (e-)participation processes: access to e-information, e-consultation processes and collaborative forms of e-participation. This chapter summarizes major results and lessons from the empirical evaluation of examples of each type and draws some conclusions for enhancing the evaluation methodology and practice. Its methodological contribution rests on applying a generic evaluation framework to the assessment of input, process, output, outcome and impacts tailored to individual cases of (e-)participation. Based on a quasi-experimental field study, the evaluation of a collaborative type of (e-)participation in local climate protection focuses in particular on the assessment of the impacts on a policy-field-related level. It shows the extent to which collaborative forms of citizen participation can contribute to climate protection and may thereby prove to be a good practice case of environmental democracy and, by employing online channels, a case of electronic environmental democracy, or “e2democracy”.