The HECAT Project has ended but HECAT researchers continue to collaborate and disseminate project results. Five HECAT researchers from SETU and Roskilde University, with colleagues from new projects, attended the 5th Street Level Bureaucracy Conference in Copenhagen in June 2024.
The research team from SETU also presented new work from the PEStech Project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland Future Digital Challenges.
Panel on “Digital Activation: How automation, algorithms and machine learning are reshaping public employment services“
Dr Sabina Pultz (Roskilde University, Denmark), Dr Ray Griffin (South East Technological University, Ireland) together with Dr Michael McGann (University of Melbourne, Australia) jointly chaired the panel on “Digital Activation: How automation, algorithms and machine learning are reshaping public employment services”.
Papers in this session included contributions from HECAT and PEStech researchers:
Presentation: Public Labour Market Infrastructure: New digital horizons for public employment services. Emma Holden, PJ White, Brian Casey, Aisling Tuite, Antoinette Jordan, Ray Griffin (SETU Ireland)
Presentation: Considering the animating ethos of designing digital first unemployment services: on the motivation of others. Ray Griffin, Aisling Tuite, Antoinette Jordan (SETU Ireland)
Researchers also presented in a number of other panels:
Panel: Frontline Responsiveness. Presentation: Tracing the rise of ‘de-caring’ in social welfare policy and politics. Aisling Tuite (SETU Ireland)
Panel: SLB from the Client Perspective: Variations. Paper Keeping the/at a distance. An analysis of the social construction of relations to the institution of unemployment. Aurélie Gonnet (Roskilde University (associate to CEET, CNAM), Denmark), François Sarfati (Université d’Evry Val d’Essonne (associate to CEET, CNAM), France), Jules Simha (CERLIS, Université de Paris (associate to CEET, CNAM), France).
Conference Keynote addresses:
Professor Mirko Noordegraaf (Utrecht University) Changing forms of professionalism in public service delivery
Associate Professor Anat Gofen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Frontline organizations as experimental settings for policy change
CLOSING PANEL DISCUSSION “ADVANCING THE FIELD OF STREET-LEVEL RESEARCH”
Panel speakers:
Mark Considine (University of Melbourne), Gabriela Lotta (Fundação Getulio Vargas), Evelyn Brodkin (University of Chicago), Bernardo Zacka (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) & Michael Lipsky.
The panel participants were given the freedom to discuss what they believe can advance the field of street-level research. Additionally, they addressed two specific questions:
- The shift from New Public Management (NPM) to New Public Governance (NPG) emphasizes societal and stakeholder values beyond cost-effectiveness, requiring more adaptable governance structures. These changes, involving layering or hybridity, significantly influence global public service reform, scholarly discourse, and policymaking. However, the transformation of public organizations to become public value-oriented, especially at the street level, remains underexplored, particularly regarding the evolving roles of street-level bureaucrats. How does this shift in governance impact street-level bureaucrats?
- Digital era governance is frequently cited as transforming public service production, including frontline work and citizen interactions. How can we understand the impact of digitization and AI on street-level bureaucracy (SLB) research?
The conference took place at the Aalborg University campus in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Conference website: 5th Street-Level Bureaucracy Conference – Aalborg Universitet (aau.dk)
The HECAT Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research & innovation programme under grant agreement No 870702
