ICT, assemblages and institutional contexts: understanding multiple development paths

This chapter presents a comparative analysis of the case studies explored in the book, using some of the theoretical perspectives discussed in the first part. This heuristic exercise is not intended as a systematic comparison of the different projects. Rather, we will go back and forth between the case studies, drawing out similarities and differences and discussing key features of various e-government projects and some of the dynamics underpinning their development.1 The chapter also represents an empirical test of the heuristic value of the concept of assemblage. Lanzara introduced this concept to capture the distinctive character of e-services and more generally of e-government and of the 'digital institutions' emerging from the development of these projects (Chapter 1). He argues that assemblages are 'collections' of institutional and technological components which tend to maintain their specificity. These components are connected in different ways to various actors such as public agencies (courts), administrative and technical authorities, as well as the software and hardware companies that shape the new technology-enabled 'service domain' which provides the e-services to the users. The chapter explores the different components of the assemblages, their relations and the mediations occurring between actors and between technological and institutional components. We will look both at the process of design of e-services, and at the context of use in which assemblages emerge. Before going on, it is however