Social innovation in the Romanian context – case study on the country’s city halls

In recent decades, computers and the Internet have led to a new era – the digital one. Along with this period, a transition process has also occurred, therefore the industrial society of yesterday has become the information society of today. In this context, Romanian public authorities should be able to keep up with the rapid manner in which modern society develops itself and also to meet the challenges that it raises. The purpose of this article is to present the specific framework in which the relationship between the Romanian information society and the public sector’s authorities takes place, a relationship that surely leads to social innovation, beneficial for both citizens and the state as a whole. The methodology that we considered for achieving our goal is based both on a bibliographical research on the most representative scientific papers written on social innovation, and on an analysis at the level of all 320 Romanian city halls – analysis that targeted the measurement of the city halls’ interest in developing communication with citizens through specific tools of IT&C. In our article, social innovation in the public sector must be understood, on one hand, as an instrument that can be used by local communities in order for them to meet current measures of austerity and, on the other hand, on the long-term, as a tool necessary for a sustainable development, based on achieving the public administration’s general objective, which is to satisfy the citizens’ needs and requirements.