E-Petitions as Sheltered Channels for Social Remittances: Empowering Civic Entrepreneurs via ManaBalss.lv

Purpose: This study examines Latvian e-petitions as sheltered channels for social remittances and the role of their key actors: e-petition authors. With net emigration of 13%, Latvia has a growing interest in the benefits of migration, including the transfer of knowledge, experience and social capital to the home country. These dynamics nevertheless remain difficult to analyse. ManaBalss.lv, a digital platform that contributed to 83 legislative changes between 2011 and 2025, provides an internationally distinctive case for examining how social remittances influence parliamentary agenda-setting.Design/methodology/approach: This interdisciplinary political science case study draws on an online survey of e-petition authors (n = 294) and in-depth interviews (n = 7). It combines the theoretical framework of the network society with concepts of social remittances and transnational dynamics from economic sociology to examine whether Latvian e-petitions function as sheltered channels for social remittances and whether their authors act as civic entrepreneurs.Findings: E-petition promoters act as civic entrepreneurs, using Mana-Balss.lv as an effective advocacy tool. The platform limits interference in the transmission of social remittances and strengthens the promoters’ capacity to influence legislative change.Academic contribution to the field: The study identifies civic e-participation as a clearly traceable channel for social remittances, an aspect that has received limited attention in economic sociology and migration studies. Such traceability and measurability are uncommon in research on social remittances. It also contributes to political science research on the conditions under which e-participation is effective, with particular attention to civic entrepreneurs. By linking these fields, the study offers empirically grounded theoretical insight into how e-participation can provide a traceable and measurable channel for social remittances.Research limitations/implications: The study focuses on civic e-participation in parliamentary agenda-setting and national lawmaking. It does not examine participation in executive government or at the municipal level.Practical implications: For researchers and policymakers, the study presents civic e-participation as a viable channel for the transnational transfer of knowledge, experience and social capital. It identifies the legislative and organisational conditions that support its effectiveness.Social implications: The study offers civic, institutional and political actors with an entrepreneurial approach an example of a policymaking framework that can benefit diaspora communities and other participants in transnational processes.Originality/significance/value: Effective e-participation with clearly measurable outcomes remains uncommon. The Latvian case of Mana-Balss.lv, with its 14-year record, therefore offers an empirically grounded analysis and conceptualisation of effective civic e-participation, with particular attention to social remittances and transnational dynamics withinthe network society.