Dear Colleagues,

Overview. The United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, have defined Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include concepts such as (1) no poverty, (2) zero hunger, (3) good health and wellbeing, (4) quality education, (5) gender equality, (6) clean water and sanitation, (7) affordable and clean energy, (8) decent work and economic growth, (9) industry, innovation, and infrastructure, (10) reduced inequalities, (11) sustainable cities and communities, (12) responsible consumption and production, (13) climate action, (14) life below water, (15) life on land, (16) peace, justice, and strong institutions, and (17) partnership for the goals.

Over the past two decades, public administrations around the world and at all levels and branches have embarked on numerous modernization initiatives and improvement measures that heavily rely on modern information and communication technologies (ICTs). These efforts and outcomes have commonly been labeled “Digital Government”, which per definition encompasses the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide government services. Digital Government can be viewed at least through four lenses, all of which can be set into relationship to the seventeen SDGs: (1) ICTs in government operations and management, (2) ICTs in democracy and citizen engagement, (3) ICTs in government services, and (4) ICTs in public policy.

Obviously, the intersections between the various SDGs and the four lenses of digital government provide a vast array for investigating and evaluating current practices as well as identifying and describing future opportunities for advancing the seventeen SDGs by means and methods of digital government, which as an outcome would help to make the overall human experience sustainable, but even more so provide the entire global biosphere (humans included) with a safe and livable space.

We invite submissions of high-quality papers that employ quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method research approaches. In addition to single-discipline-based studies, we explicitly encourage the submission of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research reports including human–computer interaction and design studies. We also welcome submissions that employ qualitative approaches such as participatory action research, citizen science, and case studies, but also quantitative approaches, for example, computer simulations such as system dynamics and agent-based modeling along with artificial intelligence and machine-learning-based studies.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to

• Digital government services for addressing the seventeen UN SDGs;
• ICT-supported citizen engagement for addressing the seventeen UN SDGs;
• ICT in government operations and management the seventeen UN SDGs;
• ICT and Public Policy with regard to the seventeen UN SDGs;
• Data visualization and dashboards to track progress regarding SDGs;
• Laws and regulations for data-driven policy making;
• Laws, regulations, and practices of open data for sustainable development goals;
• Governance of public–private collaborations for sustainable development goals;
• Government policies and projects to promote more sustainable government operations;
• Government and their role in developing local food sheds through policy and institutional actions such as institutional procurement;
• Smart governance models and their impact on urban and hinterland resilience;
• The interplay of urban and hinterland digital governments SDGs;
• ICTs implementation in smart governments and improvement of citizens’ quality of life;
• Emerging technologies implementation in governments for higher levels of development of smart and sustainable cities, hinterland, and rural areas;
• Emerging technologies implementation for improving citizen engagement in public decisions;
• Assessing the efficacy of ICT implementations in government for changing social urban and hinterland structures;
• Evaluation of the “smartness” of the government in the urban and hinterland contexts;
• Digital governments for social innovation and sustainability;
• Open government strategies for achieving sustainable development goals;
• Theorizing about and analyzing the link between digital governments and sustainable development goals;
• Urban and hinterland governance models for improving public service efficiency;
• Results assessment of sustainable development goals in different urban and hinterland digital settings;
• The use of ICTs in government to provide citizen-centered services for improving and safeguarding citizenry wellbeing;
• Technological Public Partnership models and its impact on sustainable development goals;
• Public policies for managing digital inclusion.

Prof. Dr. Hans Jochen Scholl
Prof. Dr. Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes
Prof. Dr. Manuel Pedro Rodriguez Bolivar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• digital government as facilitator of sustainability
• citizen engagement and democracy for sustainability
• sustainability-driving government services
• sustainability and digital public policy
• smart governance and SDGs
• sustainability success indicators
• SDG measures