Gameful civic engagement: A review of the literature on gamification of e-participation

Abstract

With increased digitalization, governments and public institutes became potentially better able to practice fuller and wider ranges of democratic governance through e.g., e-participation. E-participation, as any means of engagement with the common good, is, however, a difficult area of human motivation as it can be seen to exist outside the common hurdles of the everyday life and where the effects of participation are often invisible or take a long time to materialize. Recent trends of digitalization, such as gamification: a popular approach for stimulating motivation, have been proposed as remedies to foster e-participation. A plethora of applications and research has emerged related to gamified e-participation. However, there is currently a dearth in our knowledge of how gamification is being applied, researched or what its possible positive and negative outcomes can be. This study employed a systematic literature review approach in order to summarize research and findings on gamified e-participation. 66 papers were reviewed, the majority of which indicated that gamified e-participation is linked to increased engagement, motivation, civic learning and enjoyment amongst other outcomes. Nonetheless, question remains as to ethical and inclusive gamification, for which, this research provides directions for future research.