E-Participation, Rural Regime, and Network Governance: A Case of Balien River Conservation

Cassidy I-Chih Lan and Li-Pei Peng
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Cassidy I-Chih Lan: School of Resource and Environmental Science, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362000, China
Li-Pei Peng: Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: The regime theory has been widely applied to analyze the governing capacity for urban community development. However, it has seldom been translated to the countryside, even though rural communities often reveal some potential for self-governance and a capacity to act. With the emergence of information technology, social network services have become popular and have changed the social interactions between the public and private sectors. By considering the rural case of river conservation in New Taipei City, this paper used the regime theory to investigate the governing capacity of rural collaborative networks and the influence of social network services on coordination. We found that the regime theory can be used to explore rural communities with strong collaborative networks and local identities. The adoption of communication tools based on social network services strengthens informal public-private coordination wherein the power geometry of rural regimes is upgraded from ‘power-to’ to ‘power-amidst’, thus, advancing the solidarity of the community networks and prompting the rise of vital coalitions and the governing capacity of rural actors.

Keywords: regime theory; network governance; river conservation; e-participation; power-amidst (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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