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The Hermeneutic Circle as used in the Data Analysis The text consists of the case participants and the use of the web-based GSS on their behalf as they are the phenomenon that we are trying to understand that form the focus of this study. The context consists of the administrative action, the administrative justice act and the research. The text gains real existence when there is a dialogue between the context and the text. In the dialogue, the context gains new understanding of the text and with this new understanding develops an updated view of the context. With this new fore understanding of the context, new meanings are sought from the text about other parts of the context.
Source publication
The Government of the Republic of South Africa is committed to establishing a society grounded on democratic ideals, social fairness and fundamental human rights. For this to happen, any decisions to be taken by the government need to be justified, or that for decisions that have been taken, an explanation is made to the affected people if requeste...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... data from the text refers to the use of the web-based GSS and the case participants' reactions as seen in Figure 2. ...
Context 2
... clearly interpreted the data, we proceeded to interpretively analyse the data using the hermeneutic analysis framework on figure 2. The purpose of the interpretive analysis is to combine personal comments, comments from interviews, participant observations, observations and the electronic logs in order to cognitively understand the process holistically (Trauth & Jessup, 2000). ...
Context 3
... analyse the data, we used the hermeneutic analysis as shown in Figure 2. The steps 2 and 3 of figure 2 when done continually, that is to say when there is continuous movement back and forth between the text and the context, possibilities for understanding are created, if the interpreter persists and opens himself to the text. ...
Context 4
... analyse the data, we used the hermeneutic analysis as shown in Figure 2. The steps 2 and 3 of figure 2 when done continually, that is to say when there is continuous movement back and forth between the text and the context, possibilities for understanding are created, if the interpreter persists and opens himself to the text. The movement of understanding "is constantly from the whole to the part and back to the whole" (Phahlamohlaka, 2003: 117). ...
Citations
... Despite heavy investments, public service delivery as a collaborative approach still remains a significant challenge in South Africa [8,9,12,13]. In most instances, both the government administrators and people do not know how to operationalise public service delivery especially because they lack the necessary skills [14] and because many people remain suspicious of the government [15]. Public service delivery hence remains the traditional one way communication channel from the government. ...
... The third activity in the workshops of 2005 and 2006, was where the background of the PAJA Act was given to help participants understand the purposes of the Act, and the requirements and instances in which the Act can be invoked (Table 4 Practical Session on PAJA Act followed the brief overview of the Act. In 2005 and 2006, real case scenarios from previous research in this area [15] were used to simulate interaction between a government administrator and a citizen who had been affected by administrative action. In 2007 (2008) a pre-formatted example used by the government in training its administrators on how to implement the PAJA was used. ...
Governments in developing countries (DC) are constantly under pressure to achieve participatory governance using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Although many articles have appeared that clearly underscore the potential of ICT to achieve participatory governance, e-governance, most are focused on how e-governance will lead to democratic reforms. It is hard to find articles that consider how e-governance makes administrative decision-making more efficient. Administrative decision-making refers to the continual process through which government administrators make fair, impartial and just decisions. This paper based on interpretive field research experiences from South Africa proposes an ICT facilitated decision-making approach between government administrators and DC communities for participatory e-governance. The findings make a contribution to government practice and to the Information Systems field of e-governance. For government practice, the theoretically informed approach indicates encouraging results for participatory feedback on existing government services and for strengthening communication channels and capabilities during the process of reaching mutually agreeable decisions with DC communities. For e-governance, the paper proposes an approach that considers the greater antecedents of the occasional democratic participation, the essential day-to-day necessity of administrative decision-making using ICT.
... The vast majority of South Africans have limited physical access to government services. For example, in rural areas the services can be as far as two days walk away (Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka 2005). It is in such areas that the most vulnerable members of society are and where the people are in most need of government services. ...
The greater number of government efforts to stimulate participative governance in communities using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) often fall short of expectations. In South Africa extending e-government to communities has been in the form of more and/or better equipped ICT-enabled community centres, called Thusong Service Centres. In this paper, based on action research experiences, we report outcomes of interpretive research into ICT-enabled approaches to participative governance in communities. Using the Diffusion of Innovations theory as an analytic lens, the findings reveal a subtlety that is not often mentioned in the call for participative e-governance; people from communities prefer to work in groups rather than individually. The collectiveness inclination is a common denominator of many developing countries where people choose to come together to leverage the few available resources. Individuals become apprehensive when made to work on their own using the ICT. The research reveals the necessity to re-design ICT to suit small groups as part of participative e-governance rather than the normative ICT design that suits individual work styles. Additionally, the research reveals that by working in groups, communities are more willing to accept the government initiatives that are being energised with the use of ICT. Methodologically, the research revealed the ethical issue that arises from action research in its raising of unrealistic expectations in a community.
... Despite the evident heavy investments in promoting Batho Pele nationwide, public service delivery as a collaborative approach still remains a significant challenge (Harris, 2006, Legoabe, 2004, Government of South Africa, 2006, Government of South Africa, 2007. In most instances, both the public servants and the citizens do not know how to operationalise Batho Pele; both groups do not know how to translate these principles into day to day practices primarily because they lack the skills to do so (Deputy President, 2007) and because many citizens remain suspicious of the government (Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2005). Public service delivery hence remains the traditional one way communication channel from the government to the public. ...
... South Africa has come out strongly in its development initiatives in a bid to rewrite its recent history reminiscent of institutionalised oppression and forced separation to a national heritage of empowered citizens working in close collaboration with the government. Recognising the mammoth task of changing the deeply seated suspicious attitudes towards government (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005), one of the primary government policies is to make public service delivery "people-centered" and "people-driven" (South Africa, 2006). The policy, which is called Batho Pele, is aimed at instigating a collaborative approach to public service delivery which places "people at the centre of planning and delivering services" (ibid) using among others, strategies which are driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ...
... Regardless, for the vast majority of South Africans who live in rural communities, access to government services can be as many as two days away on foot (H. Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). Ironically, it is these people who have the greatest need for government services. ...
... However, by April 2004 the government had renewed its commitment to implementing the MPCC concept adopting ICT as a critical success factor and strategic driver. ICT at the MPCC is integrated in two ways; firstly through a Batho Pele Gateway Portal office where individuals coming to the MPCC must first report; and secondly through a cyber café like extension where computing facilities are commercially made available to the community for training and personal purposes (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). ...
South Africa is attempting to rewrite its history as a national heritage of empowered citizens working in close collaboration with the government. Recognising the inherent capabilities in fast-tracking development, ICT is regarded as a critical success factor in delivering development innovations in rural communities. However, the ICT innovations do not include the collaboration element. This paper reports on the effect of an e-collaboration approach in a simulated environment to raise awareness of an act of government within rural communities. The research followed an interpretive paradigm with the researchers as participant observers. The collected data was analysed using elements of the diffusion of innovations theory as a theoretical lens to reveal that e-collaboration can lead to the buy in of government development innovations.
... This paper argued that groups of people can be prepared to justify their decisions to some extent through training in a systems thinking approach to decision making and using Toulmin et al's (1979) schema of reasoning. The paper served as a conceptual basis for the field studies Enhancing procedural fairness in administrative action of the Administrative Justice Act of South Africa using web-based Group Support Systems (Twinomurinzi & Phahlamohlaka, 2005). In this paper, we focused on the potential of using web-based Group Support Systems (GSS) to enhance procedural fairness in administrative action of the PAJA. ...
The first aim of this short paper is to demonstrate that despite the many constraints facing ICT4D researchers in developing countries, it is possible to conceptualise, design and execute an ICT use study that is well grounded in both theory and practice. This we do by presenting a high level description of the web-based collaboration and thinkLets research project. The main findings of this longitudinal study thus far is a mechanism or an approach that could be used to scale up the study using a repeatable and predictable process that has the potential to be transferred to participating communities and government departments to run on their own, following the principles of collaboration engineering. The second aim is to show that networks of audiences get created along research pathways which build research, development and innovation credibility that others seek to leverage in various areas of potential ICT use to facilitate service delivery in South Africa.
... The research setting is composed of two research projects initiated in 2003. The two projects are centered on emancipating people on their awareness of the Promotion of Administration Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA) in South Africa through the use of collaborative technology (Phahlamohlaka et al., 2008, Twinomurinzi, 2007, Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2005, Twinomurinzi and Phahlamohlaka, 2006. The next section describes the research projects, hereafter referred to as the PAJA Projects, as the research setting. ...
10th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries: Assessing the Contribution of ICT to Development Goals, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 26-28 May 2009 The road of development through Information and Communication technology (ICT4D) is lined with deep potholes and dead ends since little is done to “accumulate either knowledge or practical guidance” (Heeks and Bailur, 2007, p. 243). This paper concerns how ICT can lead to development and, in particular, how ICT can facilitate government policy implementation in a development context; development being the emancipation and/or freedom of people from different forms of domination such as poverty, disease and oppression. Based on a three year ethnographic immersion in an emancipatory oriented longitudinal research project four theories stood out in their ability to offer some answers; the Capabilities Approach, Actor-Network Theory, the Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action. Each of the named theories gave resourceful explanatory insights on how ICT can lead to development but each fell short at some point. By adopting an ethnographic approach where various theories explain different parts of the problem but not the whole of it, a theoretical framework was derived from the four theories. The framework was able to more cohesively explain how ICT can lead to development. This paper reports on the process of deriving the theoretical framework and uses the framework to analyse one research setting as a case study. The practical and theoretical contributions of the framework are respectively in its critical interpretivist explanatory power of ICT4D projects as well as in its provision of guidelines on how to conduct ICT4D research.
