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influence decision-making both within and among organizations. The Government
of Victoria, for example, thus aims for “using Government 2.0 initiatives to put
citizens at the centre and provide opportunities for co-design, co-production and
co-delivery” (Roy, 2013, 2014a).
Again, despite the absence of any specific mention or examination of techno-
logical capacities for doing so, the Ontario Review Commission similarly embraces
participatory principles of this sort indirectly in their call for more collaboration
within the government and more direct involvement by social assistance recipients
in charting their course toward self-development and employment. The report
even goes as far as recommending that provincial or local government agencies
hire select social assistance recipients to work as peers with other recipients, a
horizontal relationship strongly in keeping with the spirit and logic of web 2.0
capacities.
Separate from the Ontario Commission's specific findings (which largely ignores
the technological dimension to its work), this alignment of social and technological
participation with respect to assistance and development is increasingly recognized
as a source with significant positive potential in realizing the very sorts of objectives
sought by the Commission, namely, to create social and relational capital to lessen
exclusion and foster individual and collective development. One researcher argues
that social media, in this regard, carries much potential:
Social media may support the enhancement of citizens' social capital
as it enables interactions between offline and online sociability and
the enrichment of social relations by creating and maintaining links
through the use of social networks. In addition, social media can also
contribute to the development of cultural capital of disadvantaged peo-
ple as it broadens the access to digital content and other opportunities
which facilitate (informal) learning processes. (Verdegem, 2011, p. 34)
Nonetheless, this same source further acknowledges that social media carries
offsetting risks for contributing to isolation and passive forms of activity less con-
ducive to furthering developmental opportunities. With the spread of social media
usage, and its growth tied to the advent of mobile devices that are expanding their
reach into those proportions of the population generally not online for government-
related service and activity, the main point here is that social media cannot be
ignored. Going forward, any meaningful socializing dimension to human devel-
opmental assistance is likely to be at least partially online, creating new opportuni-
ties for peer-based networking and shared learning and also new linkages between
public servants and their clients.
In terms of this latter point, within the public sector as well, participation is
a central element of any reform trajectory. This point is heavily underscored by
the Ontario Commission in its lamenting of disjointed policies and information
requirements that greatly limit the ability of case workers to engage directly with
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