Criteria and factors of digital activism effectiveness: expert assessments

Abstract

This article examines the problem of the effectiveness of digital participation, and sets the goal of defining criteria for measuring it and identifying factors that act as barriers to the implementation and achievement of full results of digital civic initiatives. The diversity of understanding efficiency is revealed in the context of the specifics of social processes and digital communications. It is shown that in the Russian and foreign scientific sociological field has not been formed a wide and substantiated experience and methodology for studying the effectiveness of online forms of civic activism, which determines the relevance of the research topic, as well as the need for a methodological solution to the problem. The empirical basis of the study is a survey of 16 experts in the field of digital activism from 8 federal districts of the Russian Federation conducted. The novelty of the work is related to the typology of the criteria for the effectiveness of digital participation, based on the analysis of expert assessments: effectiveness as effectiveness, effectiveness as the level of activity and involvement of citizens, effectiveness as development (creativity and innovation), social effectiveness and social effects, effectiveness as dialogue and the development of social partnership. Within each type there is a detailed description of the indicators and quotes from experts characterizing this performance indicator. It has been recorded that experts perceive the situation with the development of digital civic participation as dual, in which positive trends collide with barrier factors and conditions. Key factors-barriers have been identified: negative ideas about the effectiveness of digital activism, low awareness of the population about digital technologies and opportunities for participation, formalization and simulation of citizen activity, etc. Taking into account the results obtained, the prospects for future research are related to the study of the social effects of digital activism, identifying criteria for effectiveness in the assessments of the initiators and participants of activism, government officials and the media.