Who are ‘citizens’ in e-Government research? And what about non-citizens?.

Abstract

eGovernment research frequently uses the term citizen as a generic label for people who use public services or are affected by public sector digitalization. We argue that such usage is often imprecise and can obscure important differences between legal citizens and non-citizens, including migrants, EU citizens, refugees, and other cross-border service users. Drawing on an exemplary survey of highly cited articles in Government Information Quarterly, we show that the term is rarely defined and often used in ways that do not match academic or everyday understandings. We outline ways in which non-citizens may be differently affected by digital government, including unequal access to digital identification (ID) or digital services and greater exposure to surveillance and biases in automated decision-making. Furthermore, they show distinct attitudes and behaviors toward public organizations. We argue that the broad use of the term “citizen” can reduce conceptual clarity, create methodological issues and even scholarly blind spots and contribute to the exclusion of non-citizens from research. We conclude with recommendations for more precise terminology, more transparent sampling and measurement practices, and suggestions for further research that more fully incorporates non-citizens.