E-government, People and Social Change: A Case Study in China

Abstract

It is generally believed that ICT has considerable potential to improve governance capabilities and transform relations with customers. China, like many other countries, embraces e-government enthusiastically but encounters big challenges at the same time. Therefore, the successful development of e-government becomes a pivotal issue in China. Through the social study of e-government the author criticises the prevalent technological determinism. Since information systems are social systems, e-government encompasses various political, economic, social, organisational and people issues besides technical ones, so that its application is far more complicated. This paper studies the relevant social and organisational issues of e-government in China, which are important but usually ignored in contemporary Chinese literature. As a lens, aspects of structuration, especially duality of technology is applied into the analysis of the selected Nanhai case. The research focuses on middle-level officials’ views and attitudes towards e-government; explores the ICT-mediated interactions between public organisations and civil servants and implications on social change. Moreover, the research unveils the important role the middle-level officials play, as well as that of senior management in the Information Systems (IS) application.