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Global formats and local enactments : a case study of ICT professionals working on e-government projects in Dubai

This research investigates the implementation of e-government systems in Dubai, as seen through and shaped by the lived experiences of ICT professionals who work in the public sector. The research employs a conceptual lens based on Fountain’s technology enactment framework for e-government. This is used to capture the discursive relationship between institutional arrangements within the UAE’s public sector and enacted technology. Concepts of sensemaking and enactment are used to explore the local perceptions and actions of ICT professionals drawing on both new and existing institutional resources. The research draws on the case study of one of the largest public sector organizations in Dubai that was engaged with the implementation of e-government projects in the period of 1999-2007. The research explores the lived experiences of ICT professionals working on the planning, development and management of e-government systems and their responses to events over the course of the project. The research focuses on key events during three definitive time periods: The beginning of the e-government project; progress in the implementation of the project and finally the closure of the project and starting the new. The implementation of the e-government project is informed by these lived experiences that occur within and relate to wider institutional dynamics. Namely, the dynamics as new public management and e-government encounter local traditions of bureaucracy and socio-cultural norms of the UAE’s public sector. The research shows how micro level interactions are part of an on-going process of appropriating the newly arrived formats for e-government. The main argument in this thesis is that the ICT staff’s actions respond to dynamics between new and existing institutions and this substantially contributes to the emergence and shaping of locally meaningful ICT innovations in Dubai’s public sector. The research adds to the limited body of exploratory studies of e-government implementation that are based on a social constructivist view. The research further extends the discourse on globalization and ICTs by discussing how the influences of disembedded global institutions take form within local contexts and shape e-government projects.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:570968
Date January 2011
CreatorsAlghatam, Noora H.
PublisherLondon School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://etheses.lse.ac.uk/375/

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