Beyond technology: Identifying local government challenges for using digital platforms for citizen engagement

Previous research has highlighted that there is a lack of advanced technological solutions able to foster government-citizens collaboration. We argue that many examples of digital participatory platforms are already available and also ready to use for governments and citizens. Hence, causes for ineffective citizen engagement and collaboration with local government should not be sought in the lack of advanced technology. Thus, we focus on the issues and challenges that local governments face in fostering online and offline citizen engagement. We also provide a classification of challenges into six categories as a prerequisite to identifying actions and solutions for local governments.