Participación democrática a través de las TIC: El prototípico caso de Jun

This study presents the results of an observational analysis of interactions between citizens and political representatives, mediated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in a local context. Jun (Grenada, Spain) is a town considered a world reference in the incorporation of ICT in democratic participation. The study pursued two objectives: on the one hand, to know and describe the interpretations that people make with respect to their interactions with representatives of territorial power, through these technologies and, on the other hand, to identify the level of democratic participation using Internet as a means for their promotion and development. The findings reveal, first, a strong tendency to establish dyadic communication processes between authority and citizen, represented in practices widely disseminated and valued by residents and representatives; second, the low presence of interactions aimed at promoting organized participation in civil society groups; third, evidence of communicational exchange composed of emotional expressions between citizens and power holders, which are used by the latter to retain the bond between them; and finally, the establishment of symbolic instances through ICTs, in which participation is described as a community tradition.