Harmonizing Humans and Technology in the E-Governance of Senior Care: A Virtuous Pragmatic Approach 

Abstract

The rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly transformed contemporary governance. Governments worldwide are leveraging ICT to streamline operations, enhance service delivery, and foster citizen engagement. Tools such as data analytics, cloud computing, and mobile applications enable governments to respond more effectively to citizens’ needs, resulting in improved governance and better public service outcomes. However, the integration of ICT into governance often exposes complex socio-technical barriers that must be addressed for successful implementation.

Drawing on fieldwork related to ICT integration in Yangquan’s senior care practices, this thesis identifies two critical divides in e-governance: the theory-practice divide and the multidisciplinary divide. The theory-practice divide reveals that practitioners often fail to engage with researchers’ work, while researchers struggle to have their findings accepted. Additionally, e-governance research frequently lacks effective interdisciplinary communication, reflecting an absence of a coherent methodology that integrates social-political analyses of human actors with technical examinations of technological objects. This thesis proposes a virtuous pragmatic approach (VPA) to bridge these divides, drawing upon the philosophies of Wang Yangming and William James, the Chinese concept of the Unity of Dao and Qi, and Gilbert Simondon’s cybernetic technical philosophy.

Chapter 2 introduces the VPA of Wang Yangming and William James, which adopts a teleological and embodied view of knowledge. This approach posits that social conflict arises from differences in individual purposes, which are future-oriented anticipations rooted in individual perceptions. The chapter emphasizes the importance of cultivating the virtues of Cheng (Sincerity, 诚) and Ren (Benevolence, 仁) to integrate these purposes, reconstruct social orders, and achieve social harmony. This approach offers novel axiological and methodological insights for bridging the theory-practice divide by fostering shared purposes between practitioners and scholars, thereby encouraging greater practitioner engagement in the research agenda.

Chapter 3 adapts the VPA by incorporating insights from Chinese technical philosophy, the Unity of Dao and Qi, and Simondon’s cybernetic technical philosophy to address the challenges of ICT integration. This perspective views the technical object as an active agent rather than a passive object, urging individuals to understand its purpose and integrate it with their own agential purposes. As the relationship between technical objects and their environments evolves, it becomes crucial for individuals and technicians to reconstruct the technical principles governing these interactions, ensuring that the use of Qi aligns with the ethical value of social harmony and preventing individual alienation. This adapted approach provides a novel perspective for bridging the disciplinary divide in e-governance, highlighting the importance of integrating the technical principles of ICTs into research analysis and fostering effective multidisciplinary collaboration.

Chapter 4 summarizes the existing discourse on the VPA, highlighting its unique ontological, epistemological, and axiological characteristics. This chapter positions the VPA as a new research paradigm in e-governance and discusses its methodological implications, proposing a research praxis framework to guide the research process. The framework advocates for multidisciplinary, practitioner-engaged collaboration in e-governance research.

To validate the applicability of the VPA and the research praxis framework, I applied the framework to investigate two cases from Yangquan’s senior care practice. Chapter 5 outlines the empirical foundation, detailing the research site of Yangquan and the operations of the Civil Affairs Department.

Chapter 6 examines the unintended consequences of the proliferation of information management systems (IMSs) in the Yangquan Visiting Investigation of Elders with Special Difficulties Initiative. Although intended to enhance implementation efficiency, these systems created significant administrative burdens for grassroots officials, obscuring effective implementation. This case contributes to the Principal-Agent theory by highlighting the mediating role of third-party technology companies and the technical principles of IMS, demonstrating how technical choices made by third-party developers and the core principles of IMS facilitated cross-level management while hindering system integration. The digitization of management tools, such as track-record ledgers, increased interactions among multi-tier governments, further intensifying the workload of grassroots officials and exemplifying the rise of e-bureaucratic formalism.

Chapter 7 investigates the limited effectiveness of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure in Yangquan’s smart in-home senior care services, highlighting the gap between the anticipated and actual results of IoT integration. This study contributes to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) literature by revealing a dual-track relationship, comprising both Consortium and Contractual arrangements, within IoT-enabled PPP projects. The analysis shows how the technology firm infrastructuralized IoT construction and effectively established a de facto consortium with the local government, jointly overseeing the service company. This relationship implicitly shifted accountability away from the technology firm, enabling it to evade regulation and oversight while managing the project. Together, these two cases illustrate the significant impact of ICT on contemporary public administration and demonstrate the effectiveness of the VPA in addressing the core challenges in e-governance research. The VPA provides valuable theoretical perspectives and practical strategies for addressing these challenges effectively.

This research holds significant methodological, theoretical, and practical value for e-governance studies. Methodologically, it introduces a novel socio-technical approach that bridges the theory-practice gap and fosters multidisciplinary integration. Theoretically, it enhances understanding within both Principal-Agent theory and PPP literature, emphasizing the mediating role of ICT principles and third-party technology developers in public sector policy implementation. It also explores the “infrastructurization” of IoT services within PPPs, highlighting how integrated IoT technologies enable third-party firms to establish principal-principal relationships with local governments, leading to imbalanced accountability. Practically, the case studies in Yangquan’s senior care context offer actionable insights with potential applicability to other regions facing similar challenges. By addressing these core issues, this project demonstrates the effectiveness of the VPA in harmonizing human-technology interactions and improving e-governance outcomes, bridging both the theory-practice and multidisciplinary divides in the evolving field of e-governance.

Date of Award	2 Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Ning LIU (Supervisor)