Promoting sustainable development as a virtual dialogue: informing, engaging and empowering online communities

Abstract

This dissertation offers an analytical approach to study online communities that promote sustainable development. It focuses on website designs that could inform, engage and empower online communities. By integrating Sustainable Development content, Information and Communication Technology, and E-participation, the analytical approach can guide efforts to foster multi-way communications among online communities and e-group members to e-participate in and e-govern sustainable development goal setting and actions. ☐ For this dissertation, I designed a method to illustrate the use of the analytical framework to assess website designs serving online communities interested in sustainable development. The method, together with the Social Network Theory-based framework, is what I call my analytical approach. The analytical approach guides an assessment of three website designs serving online communities pursuing sustainable development. ☐ Through the case studies, I demonstrate how to generate evaluation questions from the dissertation’s analytical framework and use them to guide assessments of a website’s capacity to inform, engage and empower users. Additionally, the case study of the web presence of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illustrates how this theory can offer insights on improving the utilization of ICTs to promote sustainable development by integrating goals of informing, engaging and empowering online communities.