Automation of Digital Public Services : Challenges when Working with Automated Systems and Striving for Inclusion of End-Users

• The increasing use of automated systems for decision making and decision supportin public administration is forming new practices and challenging public values. Automated decision-making systems are mainly used in administrative systems but require end-users of services to submit relevant data in correct ways to make the services functional. However, not all potential or intended users of these services have the competence and capacity to use them. There is a pressing need to uncover and analyze how professional staff at public agencies respond to users' problems caused by digitalization in general and automation in particular for those who have problems using the services since there is a legal requirement to provide impartial public services. The case study presented in this paper builds on a bottom-up qualitative study including in-depth interviews and observations at two Swedish authorities, the Swedish Public Employment Agency and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, in two Swedish municipalities. The main contribution by the case study shows how challenges that the professional staff face when they have to support everyone when the main management method is to use automated systems. The first way of addressing risk of exclusion is improved personalized support by the professional "street-level" bureaucrats, and the second is the important support also provided by other citizens and users of the services that enhances inclusion. The study indicates the importance of forming new support structures when public services are digitalized with ambitions to be more efficient.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Keyword

digital inclusion

public services

professional competences

street-level bureaucrats

automated systems

discretion

Work Integrated Learning

Arbetsintegrerat lärande

Informatik

Informatics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)