CEDIC: Understanding the rollout of digital social services
Are you interested in social, ethical, political or legal issues concerning digital citizenship and the digitalization of the public sector?
CEDIC is an Excellent Academic Environment at OsloMet with the mission to produce groundbreaking research, provide training and advancement of mid- and early-stage researchers, and provide a fertile student environment for PhD and MA students. MA students who work on projects for CEDIC will be members of and participate in a multidisciplinary research team.
Research Centre for Digitalisation of Public Services and Citizenship (CEDIC) – OsloMet
Background
The welfare state is undergoing an unprecedented structural transformation with increasing digitization of public services. These technological transformations have the potential to relocate life chances in ways that are likely to be asymmetrical in terms of who are able to benefit from them, raising concerns of access, de-humanization, effectiveness, equity, service provision and precision.
CEDIC aims to produce new knowledge about how the digitalization of public services impact different groups, such as the elderly, ethnic minority groups, persons with disabilities, and claimants and beneficiaries of means-tested social assistance. We combine sociological, psychological, philosophical, technical, legal and human rights perspectives, and are interested in how the provision of digital social services across the different welfare regimes of Europe.
Project description
The rollout of digital social services differs widely across Europe. Some countries with more fragile social infrastructure, for example Spain, or Estonia, are the leaders in this rollout, whereas other countries that have previously been held in high esteem for their coordinated form of capitalism, such as Germany, are lagging behind.
Why do we find these variations across Europe? How have the digital social services been rolled out in Norway (or a different country you are more familiar with)? Who are the political actors involved in the rollout of digital services? Who are the actors implementing these changes? How do different communities respond?
We are looking for MA students with an interest in understanding the purpose and effects of the digital transformation of welfare state services, e.g. for socio-economic, generational or regional inequalities. We welcome MA theses analyzing these developments at the EU, national or local (municipality) level. Analysis of policy developments in non-European countries are also welcome
Possible data sources: policy documents, expert interviews, The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), UK Consumer Digital Index 2021
Number of students: 1-2 students
Contact persons:
Research assistant Maria Lokna: marialok@oslomet.no
Professor Rune Halvorsen: rune.halvorsen@oslomet.no
Last ned presentasjon som .pdf her: