Websites Facilitating Community Engagement? The Case of Birmingham City Council

Goodwin I¹*

1. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, Aoteaora/New Zealand

Local government in Britain is currently experiencing a rapid and profound period of change. As part of a broad program of New Labour led modernisation, the role of local government is currently being reconfigured away from the practice of local government, and towards the practice of local governance. The essence of this shift is bound up in a reconceived role for councils as ‘community leaders’, facilitating the development of ‘strategic partnerships’ across their localities. The upshot is that councils are now legislated to directly engage private, voluntary, and community groups and organisations in service delivery and decision making.

The Internet is seen as key to this programme of reform. By providing a platform for diverse local voices to be heard, the Internet is primarily regarded as a means for developing greater community engagement in the governing process. Accordingly, under legislative pressure, all local councils in the UK have now developed websites, and their ‘electronic interactions’ with citizens are routinely monitored by central government.

Birmingham City Council (BCC) has not been slow in reacting to these changes. Its website, first established in 1994, has recently been assessed as one of the top 10 local government sites in the UK (being awarded the key accolade – ‘transactional’). Drawing on an extended period of field research within the organisation, this paper evaluates the extent to which the website facilitates greater community engagement. This involves accessing not only the websites evolving functionality, but also its relationship to BCC’s organisational structure, managerial hierarchy, and organisational culture.

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