Datafication of government: mapping data-driven practices in social service delivery

Titus, Asha Susan (2023) Datafication of government: mapping data-driven practices in social service delivery. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

The introduction of processes of datafication is profoundly changing the logic of care and welfare provision within the social services sector in the UK. This thesis presents findings from one of the first detailed empirical studies of the incursion of dataism (Van Dijck 2014) into sensitive policy fields like child protection, welfare and social care administration. I discuss the consequences of using measurable types (Cheney-Lippold 2017) to pinpoint problematic behavioural characteristics that might need interventions in the future. In doing so I contribute to discussions about how the digitalisation of government (Dunleavy and Margetts 2015), as a long term structural macro process, has produced changes in the underlying rationalities of government. This is accomplished by locating datafication as a historical process that follows digitalisation (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier 2013, Couldry and Hepp 2016) and mapping the discourses and practices of data driven technology in government. Drawing on in-depth case studies developed through fieldwork (conducted between 2020 to 2021) and engagement with key public sector departments, I demonstrate how welfare provision is being reconstituted through data. Risk based prioritisation (Yeung 2018, Yeung and Lodge 2019) of casework through data signatures represents a significant departure from earlier modes of working with vulnerable benefit claimants and defining what ‘high risk’ looks like. The majority of the published investigations of algorithmic processes in statutory safeguarding tends to focus on predictive risk assessment in the US context or on routine Child Protection and Child in Need functions of local government. This thesis offers a new empirical site and a few distinctively under-researched modelling processes to explore how the imperatives of datafication interact with existing organisational cultures and the mundane administrative interests of those who seek to optimise bureaucratic workflows. I also document the justificatory discourses that accompany the introduction of data driven pilots and elicit the views and reflections of the human frontline worker on whether their role has subsequently shrunk. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the conceptually innovative manner in which it brings together the problematisation of ‘data’ from Critical Data Studies, classification theory and research from Social Policy.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2023 Asha Susan Titus
Library of Congress subject classification:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4450 Databases
Sets:	Departments > Media and Communications
Supervisor:	Tambini, Damian and Couldry, Nick
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4617

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