Civic Tech Field Guide
Sharing knowledge and productively growing the fieldThe People > Learn about civic tech > Books - (79)
A list of books exploring different issues like how civic tech can be used to meet challenges in the cities, how to increase democratic participation, or what are the best ways to combat ethical concerns.
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This practical book outlines the benefits of communities of practice, including accelerating professional development, breaking down organisational silos, enabling knowledge sharing, building better practices, helping to hire and retain staff, and making people happier.
A thorough and accessible account of how to use the Freedom of Information Act and other access laws, written by a leading expert
This book is for anyone who wants to understand how to be an impactful grantmaker.
In How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit, a team of experts who themselves have helped launch 18 evidence-based charities (and counting) break down what it really takes to build impactful organizations.
Good Services - the book
LondonThe bestselling book by Lou Downe about how to design services that work
We are Civic Media
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Watt Way, Los Angeles, CAWe Are Civic Media is a collective manifesto for field builders, stakeholders, educators, creative professionals, and community leaders who want to understand BOTH the deeply personal human as well as the broader conceptual dimensions of civic media.
Successful integration of generative AI for civic engagement must be powered by people who use their judgment to validate outputs, mitigate potential errors, contextualize results, and build trust between the government and the community.
Generative AI for Pro-Democracy Platforms
Cambridge, MAOnline discourse faces challenges in facilitating substantive and productive political conversations. Recent technologies have explored the potential of generative AI to promote civil discourse, encourage the development of mutual understanding in a discussion, produce . . .
Exploring Parliament
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧A fresh perspective on the work, impact, and relevance of UK Parliament, combining academic and practitioner perspectives with evidence based case studies to reveal what really goes on behind the scenes.
Political Automation: An Introduction to AI in Government and its Impact on Citizens
New York City (NYC / New York, NY)Book by Eduardo Albrecht
by Rahul Bhargava
The first sustained, detailed philosophical defense of using lotteries, rather than elections, to select political representatives
Proudly Serving
United States of America 🇺🇸A guide to public service in the digital age
It provides a comprehensive look at AI applications in legislative drafting, procedural guidance, historical archiving, and citizen engagement, supported by real-world case studies illustrating practical implementations.
New Democratic Initiatives in Authoritarian Twenty-First Century Latin America uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand the coincidence of emerging social movements, seeking more meaningful forms of democratic participation, on the one hand, and the rise of new authoritarian politics that in part rely on chaos and disorder as mechanisms of domination, on the other.
Open access book by Xabier E. Barandiaran, Antonio Calleja-López, Arnau Monterde, and Carol Romero
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
United States of America 🇺🇸An insider offers a “forceful critique...of Big Tech's steady erosion of democracy” (The New Yorker) and describes what must be done to stop it
Mair examines how we interpret the evidence of change and stability in modern parties and party systems
Institutional inertia, nevertheless, causes large delays in updating and adapting
The relationship between citizens and city governments is gradually transforming due to the utilization of advanced information and communication technologies in order to inform, consult, and engage citizens.
By Alan R. Shark, with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity AI
The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy
Civic Tech Report 2025
PragueHardcover book and online platform providing an overview of over 80 solutions from the European civic tech ecosystem
By Aure Schrock. Out in September. The first detailed history of Code for America that examines how democratically designed government systems can collectively improve technology's impact on society.
From the upheavals of recent national elections to the success of the #MyDressMyChoice feminist movement, digital platforms have already had a dramatic impact on political life in Kenya – one of the most electronically advanced countries in Africa.
Mehr Freiheit und mehr Demokratie waren die großen Versprechen des Internets.
Editors: Hans Jochen Scholl, Eric E. Holdeman, F. Kees Boersma
Wir holen euch ab! Wie wir durch Bürgerräte und Zufallsauswahl echte Vielfalt in die Demokratie bringen
Germany (Deutschland) 🇩🇪Dabei haben sich Katharina Liesenberg und Linus Strothmann vom Team Es geht LOS einer jahrtausendealten, urdemokratischen Methode bedient: des Losens
How political parties have changed in the age of social media
What Makes an Assembly? Stories, Experiments, and Inquiries
Belgium (België / Belgique / Belgien) 🇧🇪Weaving together the anthropological, aesthetic, and political aspects of assembly-making, What Makes An Assembly? explores the potential of assemblies to reimagine the way democracy is practised in contemporary societies.
Did you know hundreds of scientists have researched what makes activism effective?
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
United States of America 🇺🇸A bold call to reexamine how our government operates—and sometimes fails to—from President Obama's former deputy chief technology officer and the founder of Code for America.
This book analyzes how mainstream and new parties are building their digital platforms and transitioning from traditional (offline) organizations into the digital world
"From the historian Dan Bouk, a lesson in reading between the lines of the U.S. census to uncover the stories behind the data."
In this groundbreaking work, Haochen Sun analyzes the ethical crisis unfolding at the intersection of technology and the public interest.
"Reclaiming Participatory Governance offers empirical and theoretical perspectives on how the relationship between social movements and state institutions is emerging and developing through new modes of participatory governance."
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy.
Deliberative Democracy in Asia
Australia 🇦🇺Book edited By Baogang He, Michael Breen, James Fishkin (2021)
The Wildcard Workbook
758 8th Ave Suite 300, New York, NY 10036The Wildcard Workbook: A Practical Guide for Jokering Forum Theatre is a resource for facilitators of all kinds looking for new ways to bring fun, creativity, and critical thinking into their work!
Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team
United States of America 🇺🇸In this "deeply empowering and practical book"(Cecilia Muñoz), two technology and innovation leaders reveal dozens of tactics that enabled them to accomplish seemingly impossible reforms in organizations of all types and sizes
Sobrevivendo nas Redes: Guia do Cidadão
Brazil (Brasil) 🇧🇷A free book on how to survive on social media networks
The Turing Way: Community-led guides for data science and open research
The Alan Turing Institute, Euston Road, London, UKAlan Turing has long proved a subject of fascination, but following the centenary of his birth in 2012, the code-breaker, computer pioneer, mathematician (and much more) has become even more celebrated with much media coverage, and several meetings, conferences and books raising public awareness of Turing's life and work.
The Propagandists' Playbook: How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy
United States of America 🇺🇸How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy, by Francesca Bolla Tripodi
Reorganise: 15 stories of workers fighting back in a digital age
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧"In only a decade, the labour market has changed beyond all recognition - from zero-hour contracts to platform monopolies - meanwhile union memberships are at historic lows."
A collection of essays edited by Ana Brandusescu and Jess Reia featuring essays from participants of the AI in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust symposium that took place remotely on February 10, 2022.
Book by Sarah Williams -- How to use data as a tool for empowerment rather than oppression.
How to take advantage of technology, data, and the collective wisdom in our communities to design powerful solutions to contemporary problems
In Close Up at a Distance, Laura Kurgan offers a theoretical account of these new digital technologies of location and a series of practical experiments in making maps and images with spatial data.
The hidden costs of artificial intelligence, from natural resources and labor to privacy and freedom
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