Abstract
How can local governments in the Global South effectively implement and sustain digital public participation initiatives, and what specific roles do public officials and knowledge intermediaries play in catalysing and supporting this digital transformation? In this paper, we respond to this query by examining our experiences as researchers in implementing an ongoing multi-year applied research project on e-participation and policy modelling in various South African municipalities. The project and the country's ongoing public participation initiatives align with government policy emphasising citizen-centric public service delivery through consultation, transparency, and accountability. We aim to highlight the practical aspects of introducing e-participation mechanisms in local governance structures with different human and material resource capacity levels, which is the case in Global South contexts. Our central question is as follows: How can public officials, working alongside researchers and knowledge intermediaries, navigate the sustainable adoption of e-participation through participatory design, system awareness, and bricolage? We explore this question from the perspective of researchers leading the implementation of a multi-year, participatory action-research project which aims to pilot e-participation in six municipalities across South Africa. In the paper, we analyse the interplay of various socio-technical factors influencing the early stages of implementation and use of e-participation tools in local government. Our findings highlight the importance of building socio-technical agency of front-line public participation officials, exploring malleable technologies that are flexible to adaptation, facilitating peer-learning amongst officials on what works in similar contexts, and having a system view within and across pilots.