This Special Issue seeks to explore the impact of ADM on welfare and well-being from
European perspectives. It starts from the position of those directly involved: the engineers and
designers, the case workers who collaborate with these systems in welfare and service
provision decisions, and the people whose data fuel the systems and are affected by
automation efforts. The Special Issue aims to address the digital transformation of the citizen–
state relationship by examining the development, data work, and human-machine
collaboration within ADM, alongside the technological, social, and cultural dynamics that
either facilitate or impede progress in automating welfare for the public good.
A people-centered approach builds on the idea that welfare in societies is fundamentally about
fostering the conditions for the flourishing of everybody. Hence public goods and services
provision becomes a question of justice and equity. When welfare is increasingly automated
this consequently has implications for social justice for the people more generally and must be
addressed through the lens of the people implicated in the process of automation. Read the full call here.