Democratic and Electronic Changes in Local Public Action in Europe: REvolution or E-volution?

European states have each exploited in their own way the opportunities offered by technological development and dematerialisation, with varying degrees of success, evolving between E-volution and REvolution. The aim of the conference, scheduled for 25 and 26 September 2020 and organised by the OLA Network (Observatory on Local Autonomy: www.ola-europe.eu), in collaboration with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, but which had to be cancelled due to Covid-19, was to bring together specialists from many European countries, from various scientific backgrounds (sociologists, political scientists, economists, lawyers, managers, geographers, historians, etc.), but also data managers, experts on open-data and transparency, representatives of research and intelligence departments of local authorities, etc. The aim is to take stock of the democratic, electronic and digital changes in local public action and services, to share various national experiences and to offer a projection towards possible perspectives. To this end, two angles of approach have been chosen: the changes in public participation in local public action (1) and the digitised and dematerialised changes in local administration (both in terms of digital services and the use of open data to improve service provision) (2). However, these angles of approach intersect and converge in some of the written contributions, gathered here, and reflecting the responses to the questions generated by the purpose and themes of this conference which, for the first time since the creation of the OLA network in early 2008, could not be held. The fact remains that the strength of a network lies in the will of its members, who wish to keep it alive beyond crises, hazards and constraints. I would like to thank the authors of this new and seventh collective work, compiled and produced by the OLA Network, for their participation despite the vicissitudes of the exceptional pandemic crisis we are experiencing...