TY - GEN
T1 - Dismantling Digital Cages
T2 - 21st IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Government, EGOV 2022
AU - Nouws, Sem
AU - Janssen, M.F.W.H.A.
AU - Dobbe, Roel
N1 - Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Algorithmic systems used in public administration can create or reinforce digital cages. A digital cage refers to algorithmic systems or information architectures that create their own reality through formalization, frequently resulting in incorrect automated decisions with severe impact on citizens. Although much research has identified how algorithmic artefacts can contribute to digital cages and their unintended consequences, the emergence of digital cages from human actions and institutions is poorly understood. Embracing a broader lens on how technology, human activity, and institutions shape each other, this paper explores what design practices in public organizations can result in the emergence of digital cages. Using Orlikowski’s structurational model of technology, we found four design practices in observations and interviews conducted at a consortium of public organizations. This study shows that design processes of public algorithmic systems (1) are often narrowly focused on technical artefacts, (2) disregard the normative basis for these systems, (3) depend on involved actors’ awareness of socio-technics in public algorithmic systems, (4) and are approached as linear rather than iterative. These four practices indicate that institutions and human actions in design processes can contribute to the emergence of digital cages, but also that institutional – opposed to technical – possibilities to address their unintended consequences are often ignored. Further research is needed to examine how design processes in public organizations can evolve into socio-technical processes, can become more democratic, and how power asymmetries in the design process can be mitigated.
AB - Algorithmic systems used in public administration can create or reinforce digital cages. A digital cage refers to algorithmic systems or information architectures that create their own reality through formalization, frequently resulting in incorrect automated decisions with severe impact on citizens. Although much research has identified how algorithmic artefacts can contribute to digital cages and their unintended consequences, the emergence of digital cages from human actions and institutions is poorly understood. Embracing a broader lens on how technology, human activity, and institutions shape each other, this paper explores what design practices in public organizations can result in the emergence of digital cages. Using Orlikowski’s structurational model of technology, we found four design practices in observations and interviews conducted at a consortium of public organizations. This study shows that design processes of public algorithmic systems (1) are often narrowly focused on technical artefacts, (2) disregard the normative basis for these systems, (3) depend on involved actors’ awareness of socio-technics in public algorithmic systems, (4) and are approached as linear rather than iterative. These four practices indicate that institutions and human actions in design processes can contribute to the emergence of digital cages, but also that institutional – opposed to technical – possibilities to address their unintended consequences are often ignored. Further research is needed to examine how design processes in public organizations can evolve into socio-technical processes, can become more democratic, and how power asymmetries in the design process can be mitigated.
KW - Design process
KW - Digital cage
KW - Public algorithmic system
KW - Structuration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137997924&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-15086-9_20
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-15086-9_20
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85137997924
SN - 9783031150852
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 307
EP - 322
BT - Electronic Government - 21st IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, EGOV 2022, Proceedings
A2 - Janssen, Marijn
A2 - Csáki, Csaba
A2 - Lindgren, Ida
A2 - Melin, Ulf
A2 - Loukis, Euripidis
A2 - Viale Pereira, Gabriela
A2 - Rodríguez Bolívar, Manuel Pedro
A2 - Tambouris, Efthimios
PB - Springer
Y2 - 6 September 2022 through 8 September 2022
ER -