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Discretion, Automated Decision-Making and Public Values: Background and Test of an Approach for Unpacking Human and Technological Agency

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Electronic Government (EGOV 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13391))

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Abstract

This study aims to develop a theoretical and analytical approach for studying discretion, automated decision-making (ADM) and the consequential public values. This is achieved through our proposed approach, an overview of literature and an empirical test. The context of our empirical test is decisions made about economic support in social work. The research questions are as follows: 1) What are the relevant components in a theoretical and analytical approach with this specific aim? 2) How does human, non-human and joint, ‘hybrid’, agency influence digital discretion and the consequential public values in social work? 3) What are the usefulness and prospective problems with the approach? Our approach enhances the understanding of the ground for discretion in ADM, which is seen as an emergent routine in the form of knowledge about process, and the details of human and non-human actors involved in relation to consequential public values. To develop its usefulness, the approach should primarily be applied in multiple case studies of ‘ín-between’ contexts, such as social work, to generate a theory of the role of human and non-human agency in the consequential public values of ADM.

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Acknowledgements

Ethical approval has been received from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority Dno. 2020-02097.

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) Grant no. 2019-00710.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Information Technology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Agneta Ranerup

  2. School of Social Work, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lupita Svensson

Authors
  1. Agneta Ranerup
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  2. Lupita Svensson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agneta Ranerup .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Marijn Janssen

  2. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Csaba Csáki

  3. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Ida Lindgren

  4. University of the Aegean, Samos, Greece

    Euripidis Loukis

  5. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Ulf Melin

  6. Danube University Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria

    Gabriela Viale Pereira

  7. University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar

  8. University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efthimios Tambouris

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Ranerup, A., Svensson, L. (2022). Discretion, Automated Decision-Making and Public Values: Background and Test of an Approach for Unpacking Human and Technological Agency. In: Janssen, M., et al. Electronic Government. EGOV 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13391. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15086-9_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15086-9_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-15085-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-15086-9

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