Abstract
ABSTRACT Thisarticle focuses the policy discourse that Swedish municipal personal socialservices (PSS) must engage with when implementing automateddecision-support systems; how these tools are conceptualized in the contextof social work and what outcomes they are expected to yield in the PSSorganizations. Applying an adapted version of Bacchi’s WPR framework, resultsindicate that the three main policy actors directing the Swedish PSSportray a future where the capacity of the welfare state is threatened, thussuggesting digital automation as an objective and politically neutral tool forsaving the PSS from this worrisome prospective. This article, however,argues that by uncritically promoting a particular form of digitalautomation within the PSS, the policy discourse risks overlooking thecharacteristics of digital technologies, thus both disregarding itsconsequences and amplifying the neoliberal ideals that award private enterprisethe role of the main supplier of public welfare.
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