Professor Helen Margetts


		
		
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		Professor Helen Margetts

Helen Margetts is the Director of the OII. She has interests in e-government, government information systems, large-scale IT contracts, public management reform, tools of government for public policy, and online political participation.

Email: director@oii.ox.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1865 287207

Profile

Helen Margetts is the Director of the OII, and Professor of Society and the Internet. She is a political scientist specialising in e-government and digital era governance and politics, investigating the nature and implications of relationships between governments, citizens and the Internet and related digital technologies in the UK and internationally. She has published major research reports in this area for agencies such as the OECD and the UK National Audit Office, in addition to important books and articles. In 2003 she and Patrick Dunleavy won the 'Political Scientists Making a Difference' award from the UK Political Studies Association. She is co-director of OxLab, a laboratory for social science experiments and editor of the journal Policy and Internet.

Professor Margetts joined the OII in 2004 from University College London where she was a Professor in Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy. She began her career as a computer programmer / systems analyst with Rank Xerox after receiving her BSc in mathematics from the University of Bristol. She returned to studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1989, completing an MSc in Politics and Public Policy in 1990 and a PhD in Government in 1996. She worked as a researcher at LSE from 1991 to 1994 and a lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London from 1994 to 1999.

Research interests

e-government, government information technology and large-scale IT contracts, public management reform, tools of public policy, collective action, political participation, alternative electoral systems, social science experiments, webmetrics

Positions held at the OII

  • Director, October 2011 -
  • Professor of Society and the Internet, October 2004 -
  • Director of Graduate Studies, October 2009 - August 2010
  • Director of Research, October 2004 - September 2009

Research

Current projects

Past projects

  • Information Exchange between Citizens and the Department of Work and Pensions

    September 2008 - March 2009

    A value for money study for the National Audit Office (NAO) looking at information exchange between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its benefit customers.

  • Breaking Barriers to e-Government

    December 2004 - December 2007

    Investigating the legal, organisational, technological and other barriers to expanding effective eGovernment services using the Internet and to define possible solutions at a European level to overcome such obstacles.

  • Participation in Internet-mediated interactions

    October 2004 - December 2006

    This research applied a multidisciplinary approach to developing a methodology for evaluating the web structure and 'health' of e-government, and investigating design mechanisms for fundraising on the Internet (including determinants of giving behaviour).

Publications

Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Margetts, H. (2010) Modernization Dreams and Public Policy Reform. In: H.Margetts, P.6 and C.Hood (Eds) Paradoxes of Modernization. Unintended Consequences of Public Policy Reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 17-43.
  • Margetts, H. (2010) The Internet and Political Science. In: C.Hay (ed.) New Directions in Political Science. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 65-87.
  • Margetts, H. (2010) Information Exchange between Government and Citizens. In: V.Uberoi, A.Coutts, I.Maclean and D.Halpern (eds) Options for Britain II: Cross Cutting Policy Issues - Changes and Challenges. London: Wiley, Blackwell.
  • Stoker, G. and Margetts, H. (2010) The Experimental Method: Prospects for Laboratory and Field Studies. In: D.Marsh and G.Stoker (eds) Theories and Methods in Political Science [3rd edn]. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Margetts, H. and Partington, M. (2010) Developments in E-government. In: M.Adler (ed.) Administrative Justice in Context. Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 47-72.
  • Margetts, H. (2009) Public Management Change and e-government: the emergence of Digital Era Governance. In: A.Chadwick and P.Howard (eds) Handbook of Internet Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 114-128.
  • Margetts, H. (2003) Electronic Government: A Revolution in Public Administration. In: G.Peters and J.Pierre (eds) Handbook of Public Administration. Sage.

Conference papers

Presentations

Reports

Working papers

Teaching

Courses taught at the OII

DPhil students supervised at the OII

Current students

Completed students

  • Max Loubser

    Organisational Mechanisms in Peer Productions: The Case of Wikipedia

Webcasts

  • Mapping and Measuring Cybercrime (Public Forum)

    Mapping and Measuring Cybercrime (Public Forum)

    Recorded on: 22 January 2010 Duration: 01:30:17

    This public panel discussion focuses on the most appropriate ways of mapping and measuring cybercrime to inform legislative, research and policy debates. It highlights the findings of an all-day invited forum on the topic.

  • Parties, Campaigns and Representation: The Political Impact of Blogs and Social Media

    Parties, Campaigns and Representation: The Political Impact of Blogs and Social Media

    Recorded on: 18 September 2009 Duration: 00:30:13

    Are social media tools likely to prove effective in engaging any voters except those who are already interested in politics? Is their apparent 'democratisation' of traditional party structures to be believed?

  • The Virtue of Forgetting

    The Virtue of Forgetting

    Recorded on: 18 September 2009 Duration: 00:32:54

    Digital technology empowers us to find and share information as never before, but we do not always foresee the consequences of these new powers. Can the dangers of everlasting digital memory be avoided? Can we reintroduce our capacity to forget?

  • Studying at the Oxford Internet Institute

    Studying at the Oxford Internet Institute

    Recorded on: 27 October 2008 Duration: 00:09:13

    Thinking about applying for our DPhil or MSc courses? Want to know more about what it's like to study at the OII? In this ten minute video, faculty and students talk about the OII's DPhil and MSc programmes.

News

Events

  • Internet, Politics, Policy 2012: Big Data, Big Challenges? (IPP2012)

    Thursday 20 - Friday 21 September 2012

    Reprising the very successful 'IPP2010', this conference organised by the journal Policy and Internet subjects the relationship between the Internet, Politics and Policy to multi-disciplinary scrutiny, focusing this time on the challenges of 'Big Data'.

Last updated on: 13 February 2012