ICT and Social Control in the Brazilian Public Health System: Beyond the woods

Marie Anne Macadar (PhD), Visiting Scholar, Center for Technology in Government, and Associate Professor at the School of Business at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Thursday, May 17, 2012, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m

Location: CTG, 187 Wolf Road, Suite 301, Albany, NY 12205

Abstract

Over the last decades, the social setting of human life has been remodeled by the technological revolution produced by Information and Communication Technologies (Castells, 2000). Considering current technological changes, there is increasing urgency for effective ICT management in government. In this talk, Dr. Marie Anne Macadar will discuss her current Information Science research in the areas of public health, social control in the Brazilian public health system, and current e-Participation initiatives being offered in Brazil.

The theoretical framework used to analyze the cases presented here is Institutional Theory, which postulates that organizations tend to adopt similar structures forming a homogeneous field in order to get the recognition in the environment they are inserted. Institutional Theory has constructs that allow the analysis of the organizational environment of public management and the influence of institutional factors in the adoption of technology in organizations. This may shed light on the issue and open up the discussion about challenges and opportunities to produce comparative studies seeking universal theories and transferable practices from a variety of cultural settings in multiple countries (Dawes, 2007). Additionally, these cases could also be analyzed from the view of multi-stakeholder collaboration, which the Open Government Partnership (OGP) seems to tackle with commitments from governments to promote transparency and empower citizens around the world.

Marie is an associate professor at the School of Business at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre). She was also an associate professor at the State University of Rio Grande do Sul, UERGS (Porto Alegre, RS – Brazil) and at the Positivo University (UP) in Curitiba, Brazil.

Previously she was an assistant professor at University of the Sinos Valley, UNISINOS (São Leopoldo, RS – Brazil). While doing her PhD course at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), she was a Visiting Student at the University of Cambridge, UK (2003-2004), under the supervision of Professor Geoff Walsham.

She is the author or co-author of several articles published in international e Brazilian journals. She is a reviewer of international and local academic journals. Her research includes Information Systems in Health, ICT for Development, Digital Divide, e-Participation and Citizen Engagement. She is also member of AIS and IFIP WG 9.4.

Link to Curriculum Vita>>