Automation is thought to increase productivity with less effort and lower costs in many areas. But what happens to our wellbeing when this logic is deployed to support decisions in the welfare sector? The project AUTO-WELF investigates the extensive implementation of automated decision-making (ADM) in the welfare sector.
-> Krisen wie die COVID-19-Pandemie stellen Wissenschaft und Politik vor neue Herausforderungen. -> Wissenschaftliche Politikberatung informiert Verwaltung und Politik, ihre Güte und Effizienz hängt von unterschiedlichen Kriterien ab. -> Um Effizienz zu steigern und Vertrauen zu schaffen, muss wissenschaftliche Politikberatung transparent gestaltet sein. -> Gleichzeitig wird Vertrauen während chronischer Krisen gestärkt, wenn vielfältige Perspektiven berücksichtigt werden. -> Um adäquate Beratung zu ermöglichen, ist eine Ausstattung mit ausreichenden Ressourcen unerlässlich.
Allhutter, Doris (12.12.2024) Profiling in der öffentlichen Arbeitsverwaltung. Wie algorithmische Risikovorhersage intersektionale Ungleichheit erzeugt. Vortrag bei: Online Lecture series "KI und die Zukunft der Arbeit. Genderdynamiken im Wandel’ (TU Chemnitz), Chemnitz/GERMANY.
Allhutter, Doris (03.12.2024) ÖAW Gender & Diversity Lecture "Wie KI intersektionale Ungleichheit skaliert" (Presentation and Panel discussion). Vortrag bei: Lectures zu Gender & Diversity: KI und Geschlecht im öffentlichen Leben (ÖAW), Wien/AUSTRIA.
Mager, Astrid (03.12.2024) ÖAW Gender & Diversity Lecture "KI im öffentlichen Leben" (Presentation and Panel discussion). Vortrag bei: Lectures zu Gender & Diversity: KI und Geschlecht im öffentlichen Leben (ÖAW), Wien/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, Doris; Cavalcanti de Alcântara, Rafaela; Mager, Astrid (25.09.2024) Communal Infrastructures of Welfare: public value, data extractivism and data justice. Vortrag bei: ECREA 2024 "Communication & social (dis)order" (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences), Ljubljana/SLOVENIA.
Mager, Astrid; Allhutter, Doris (06.09.2024) Data power in the public sector. How data are used to exercise power in public health insurance. Vortrag bei: Data Power 2024 (International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore / University of Graz), online/INDIA.
Allhutter, Doris (15.08.2024) What role should / do researchers play in technological change?. Vortrag bei: International Workshop "Translating Critical Data and Algorithms Studies into Impact" (University of Copenhagen), Copenhagen/DENMARK.
Cavalcanti de Alcântara, Rafaela; Allhutter, Doris (18.07.2024) Expectations of ADM and Urban Data Management Imagined Futures. Vortrag bei: 4S/EASST Joint Conference "Making and Doing Transformations" (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Amsterdam/NETHERLANDS.
Allhutter, Doris (18.06.2024) Automated and Dafafied Welfare Futures. Vortrag bei: D!ARC Lectures (University of Klagenfurt), Klagenfurt/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, Doris (05.03.2024) KI und Datenanalytik in der Arbeitswelt: Profiling von Arbeitssuchenden und automatisiertes Diversity Recruiting. Vortrag bei: Arbeiterkammer Salzburg, Salzburg/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, Doris (26.02.2024) Erfüllt AMAS die Ziele des AMS? Profiling von Arbeitssuchenden aus soziotechnischer Sicht und im Blick von Audits. Vortrag bei: Bildungskonferenz 2024 "Künstliche Intelligenz im Prüfkontext" (Rechnungshof), Universität Wien/AUSTRIA.
Mager, Astrid; Allhutter, Doris (02.02.2024) Infrastructures of welfare. Narratives and counter-narratives of data infrastructures in the context of public health insurance and open commons,. Vortrag bei: Big Data Discourses Conference, Leipzig/GERMANY <https://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/en/institut-fuer-kommunikations-und-medienwissenschaft/professuren/chair-of-media-and-communication/big-data-discourses-communicating-deliberating-and-imagining-datafication>.
Allhutter, Doris (18.12.2023) Researching Infrastructures of Welfare: practice-oriented research methods in Auto-Welf. Vortrag bei: Workshop ‘Doing and/in Data’, Vienna (online)/AUSTRIA.
Cavalcanti de Alcantara, Rafaela (29.11.2023) “Cambia, todo cambia”: Cuerpo-territorio and buen vivir as lenses to reflect on data commons. Vortrag bei: STS Austria Conference 2023, Wien/AUSTRIA <http://www.sts-austria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/STS-Austria-Conference-2023_Full-Program-and-Abstracts_final.pdf>.
Cavalcanti de Alcantara, Rafaela (28.11.2023) The Challenge of “Commoning” Smart City Infrastructures: thinking about data integration platforms. Vortrag bei: STS Austria Conference 2023, Wien/AUSTRIA <http://www.sts-austria.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/STS-Austria-Conference-2023_Full-Program-and-Abstracts_final.pdf>.
Mager, Astrid (28.11.2023) Automating Welfware: How to open up, re-imagine, and rebuild data infrastructures for the public good. Vortrag bei: STS Austria Conference 2023, ÖAW, Wien/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, Doris (28.10.2023) Mind Scripting in Practical Terms. Vortrag bei: Auto-Welf Lunch Time Series, online/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, Doris (25.10.2023) Infrastructures of Welfare: the datafication of Europe's systems of social protection. Vortrag bei: STS Talk series of the STS Department at the University of Vienna, Vienna/AUSTRIA.
Allhutter, D.; Alushi, A.; Berdys, M.; Hughes, E.; Männiste, M. et al. [..] (26.09.2023) AI in Welfare: public policies, public interest, and political mandate. Vortrag bei: International Workshop: AI Systems for the Public Interest, Berlin/GERMANY.
Allhutter, Doris (14.09.2023) Künstliche Intelligenz in Obersten Rechnungskontrollbehörden. Vortrag bei: Rechnungshof Österreich, Vienna/AUSTRIA.
Cavalcanti de Alcantara, Rafaela (19.06.2023) Smart cities and feminist perspectives on the urban space: Connecting the dots towards the right to the city. Vortrag bei: Data Justice Conference, Cardiff, Wales/UNITED KINGDOM <https://datajusticelab.org/data-justice-2023-conference-programme/>.
Across Europe, the welfare sector is facing increasing demands and shrinking resources. Calls to mitigate social hardships more effectively and increase public administration's efficiency suggest introducing data-driven decision-support and enhancement with artificial intelligence (AI).
AUTO-WELF is the first project to analyze automated welfare provision across European welfare regimes. It examines the implications of algorithms and AI for the future of European citizens and societies. The project will provide profound insights into how automated decision-making can support but also harm human wellbeing.
Data-based infrastructures in public administration have a significant impact on the living circumstances of citizens and on human agency. ADM systems are shaping not only welfare provision and public management but also how citizens encounter, and are addressed by, the state. In short, they transform the relationship between citizens and the state. This prompts many ethical and political questions regarding transparency and accountability, as well as systemic biases and social inequalities.
AUTO-WELF focuses on the perspective of people implicated in the automation process —the system engineers and designers, the caseworkers who collaborate with ADM systems in making decisions about welfare and service provision, and the citizens whose data feed the systems.
The project will develop groundbreaking knowledge on the consequences of automating welfare in two domains: a) core welfare services, such as employment services, healthcare, and social benefits provision, and b) automation of communal welfare infrastructures and services, including smart city and smart village initiatives that aim at providing automated social infrastructures for community building and urban development. We explore these domains across eight European countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Estonia, Poland, Denmark and Sweden represent different types of the welfare state and various stages of automated decision-making.
11/2022 - 10/2025
AUTO-WELF is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF I 6075) under the CHANSE Programme (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) "Transformations: Social and cultural dynamics in the digital age".
