A Qualitative Research On the Evaluation of Corporate Feedback Practices in Municipalities as a Citizen Participation Practice

Abstract

The using of the Internet since the beginning of the 2000s has led to an increase in scientific interest in e-participation applications, which are defined as online participation. Feedback applications are areas of receiving comments from users, listening to complaints or presenting suggestions on process design regarding available services. Here, “Write to us”, “Online Chat”, “Like or Dislike Buttons” and “Comment sites” are applications designed to get feedback. It is important how these applications work and how obtained data is stored and interpreted in terms of determining the level of interaction between the municipality and the citizen. In the study, first of all, citizen participation and e-participation, one of the participation methods, will be explained conceptually. In the study, feedback applications on the websites of 11 District Municipalities, including Tekirdağ Metropolitan Municipality, and communication lines used for feedback will be examined; interviews will be held with the administrative staff who collect and report the feedback, it will be evaluated in which aspects the feedbacks are reflected in the applications. In the study, feedback applications were tested and the work of the information processing units was observed on site, especially as a participant observer. Accessibility of feedback applications, ease of use, response times of municipalities were determined and advantageous aspects for participation were listed.