Reducing administration? Examining the alignment of robotic process automation and social assistance in Swedish Personal Social Services

摘要

In line with the global trend towards digitalization, digital automation has become a politically endorsed strategy to enhance efficiency and transparency in public service delivery. One such example is the adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the context of social assistance (SA) in Sweden. While SA is a municipally organized means-tested subsidy for the most financially vulnerable, RPA functions as highly structured software executing administrative tasks based on predetermined rules. Employing a sociomaterial perspective, this article analyses group interviews conducted in four Swedish municipalities, to explore if and how RPA adoption configures the dynamics of SA casework administration and practice. Findings suggest that RPA adoption does not inherently lead to expected all-encompassing enhancements of faster and fairer eligibility determinations as well as a more client-centric approach in SA casework. Instead, the instrumentalist approach of leveraging digital tools to achieve specific outcomes, combined with the task delineation required by RPA, appears incongruent with the nature of SA casework practice. As caseworkers attest to organizational adjustments and a more instrumental approach towards clients’ situations alongside RPA adoption, this study underscores the inadequacy of the rationalist notion of segmenting SA casework in order to achieve efficiency in casework that, by law, should be based on individual judgements by professional caseworkers.