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Abstract
This thesis takes a deliberately broad investigative approach to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption and use in an Australian planning system. By firstly building on research that suggests a mismatch exists between the supply and demand of Planning Support Systems (PSS), secondly, drawing on socio-technical research conducted during the mid 1990s investigating the human factors involved in the take up of Geographic information systems (GIS) in planning practice. Thirdly, looking at electronic planning (ePlanning) as the e-government concept applied to urban and regional planning. The emergence of E-government has been fuelled by the proliferation of the Internet and its communicative ability to automate existing paper-based procedures.
The approach taken by this thesis to data collection and analysis is twofold; firstly by using data collected through case studies and the application of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Secondly, an online questionnaire of staff in local and state government and private practice. The questionnaire data was analysed using a structural equation modelling (SEM) technique under the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTUAT) framework. The results of both analysis techniques are then compared.
Analysis and results of the ANT case studies demonstrates that applying ANT can provide useful insights into the social and technical interactions that are relied upon to build and implement a PSS. Moreover, the UTAUT results found that in order for ICT applications to be widely accepted by planners, the organisations in which they work need to address performance expectancy and facilitating conditions as priorities, also, for this sample, planners are not strongly influenced by social influences in their work place. However, the analysis also suggests other factors are involved in influencing behavioural intentions towards using ICT. Although the methods used in this thesis have vastly different approaches to data collection and analysis, results have been found to be somewhat complimentary.
While difficult to generalise from a single set of case studies taken from a single geographic region, this thesis argues that more research using the ANT methodology may be yield answers to demand side issues that are hindering a more healthy adoption of ICT in planning practice.