Designing Democratic Systems for Civic Collective Action

Abstract

Digital technologies have transformed engagement in civic collective action, connecting citizens to more action opportunities than ever before. Civic technologists have mostly focused on mobilizing grassroots collective action by providing cost-effective action opportunities and personalized ways to connect to social issues. Effective mobilization often requires citizens to deliberate about what collective action to take and how to build political power to achieve policy outcomes. Yet we know little about the deliberative processes that help citizens build motivation, develop policy solutions, and organize power to implement policy change through civic collective action. Furthermore, existing CSCW systems are not designed to help citizens learn complex information, develop the motivation to take action, build voluntary commitment, and effectively link collective action efforts to political mechanisms for implementation. Consequently, my doctoral research aims to develop a design framework for social computing systems that empower citizens to change local policy outcomes through deliberation in civic collective action. In this work, I will contribute a systematic design framework to civic technology researchers for supporting deliberation as the key organizing process in developing and implementing effective local policy solutions. To do so, I will provide an in-depth examination of the learning challenges in getting started with taking political action to advance theories of political participation and contribute an iterative community-based approach for developing the political will necessary to implement policy outcomes democratic deliberation.