Citizen participation encompasses “all the ways in which stakeholders [including citizens] can be involved in the policy cycle and in service design and delivery”. This definition encompasses three “levels” of participation, which correspond to the different forms of interactions between citizens and governments: information, consultation, and engagement (OECD, 2017[45]).
Civic Tech means “the use of digital technologies to reinforce democracy by enabling the public to be informed, participate in decision and policymaking, and increase governments’ responsiveness and accountability” (OECD, Forthcoming[46]).
Digital Twins consist of digital models of existing or planned real-world places, products, or processes that “are used to model complex systems, often in urban planning, architectural design, manufacturing and training” (OECD, 2025[4]).
Emerging technologies are here defined using a multi-dimensional approach (OECD, 2025[4]) looking at five dimensions (legal, political, social and experiential, economic, and technical) to frame these technologies (instead of trying, for instance, to rely on a pre-defined list of technologies). This multi-dimensional approach encapsulates and responds to the diversity of actors involved in the life cycle of a digital technology, including the public sector, academia, private sector, and civil society. This definition is aligned with the systemic lens used in the present study.
Innovation ecosystems consist of “a network of actors from the private sector, the government and research institutions who work together to develop new technologies, products or services that address shared specific goals” (OECD, 2022[7]). For the purpose of this study, we also look at the significant role civil society organisations play as part of the innovation ecosystem of emerging technologies for citizen participation.
Network organisations are based on webs of relationships among (relatively) independent teams or actors with shared purposes and/or goals. These structures break away from hierarchical, strictly top-down, and/or centralised approaches in organisational governance, adopting instead team-based and distributed structures (Antivachis and Angelis, 2007[47]). An example is the Network of Participative Municipalities (RAP) in Portugal that consists of different municipalities working together in the field of citizen participation.
Open by default “measures openness beyond the release of open data, including efforts to foster the use of technologies and data to communicate and engage with different actors” (OECD, 2024[23]).
Proprietary Technology is one or any combination of processes, tools or systems that are the property of an individual or business, patented or otherwise, that require some form of permission from the owner to be used by third parties. An example of such technologies, include software where permission is granted through the purchase of a license.