Episode 2: Research design & field access

Send a textIn this and the next episode, you will have the chance to meet the people I collaborated with during field research and for data generation. In today's episode, we will hear about the experiences of three persons who contributed to the research in the scope of my field research in South Korea. Jiin, Anna and HyunSeung Joo explain what they liked about our collaboration and their work in the project as well as the challenges they encountered. They each contributed to the study in different and essential ways: by facilitating field access, by conducting interviews, and by interpreting interviews. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode we explore a topic that has come up in all our case studies in the different world regions, even though in different forms, namely opposition and resistance to the state’s increasing use of digital tools and AI. From South Africa to Canada, from the Caribbean to South Korea – everywhere there are at parts of the population that do not necessarily agree with how their public administration digitalizes and automates its services. Scholars agree that modern society functions as a complex human-machine social system, where machines are not merely tools but active participants in shaping social outcomes. This presumption becomes particularly prevalent in the context of citizen-state interaction, where a power imbalance is already inscribed. In this episode we thus look at citizens’ resistant practices vis-à-vis governments’ use of technology.See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode I share insights from my field research in South Korea, one of the leading countries in the domain of digitalization and AI. I discuss the omnipresence of digitality, which refers to the condition of living in a digital culture, as I encountered it in public space and in interviews with people working in the public sector. The interview partners highlight that there are certain things AI cannot do (yet) and that in some cases there is only a thin line between protection and surveillance, for instance, regarding the so-called smart plug which monitors movements in people's homes. The full photo documentation can be found here: juliadahlvik.wordpress.comSee more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode we explore current challenges with regard to accessing public services in the digital age in South Africa, in particular in the rural areas. Accounts from different perspectives - citizen, government official and public ombuds staff - identify similar problems, such as lacking infrastructure, expensive data, trust issues, literacy and digital literacy. Despite numerous policy programs by the government, implementation is slow, leading to parts of society being left behind in case of a digital-first public administration.  See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode I share interviewees' accounts from my case studies in Canada, South Africa, Curacao and Sint Maarten on the issue of language, linguistic diversity and literacy when it comes to accessing public services and the justice system. People's experiences in these very different places demonstrate the universality of the problem, when public services and courts cannot be accessed in the languages the people actually speak. Illiteracy, of course, makes it even more difficult to follow an administrative or legal procedure.  See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode we discuss some of the experiences people have when they try to get in contact with the public administration. Especially (semi-)automated telephone hotlines create frustration among citizens who want or need to talk to a public agent. Our interviewees from the case study in Quebec, Canada, report about long waiting times and the impossibility of reaching the right person for a certain matter. Importantly, the administration is deemed to shirk its responsibility not only by outsourcing administrative tasks to the citizens but also by appearing as an anonymous entity both on the phone and in email communication. Citizens don't know who they are interacting with, so noone in particular can be held responsible for certain information that was provided or actions that were taken by the agent. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode I have the pleasure of introducing to you two sociologists who live and work in the Caribbean and whom I had the great pleasure to meet during my field research stay in the beginning of 2024. Elly Helings in Curaçao and Raymond Jessurun in Sint Maarten will share with us their perspectives on the digitalization of public services in these two islands, which are both officially autonomous since 2010 but are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We will discuss some commonalities and differences between the two islands concerning access to digital public services. And we will talk about challenges, local factors affecting the current situation, and ideas for improvement.See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode I share with you some insights from my case studies in Canada, concretely in the Northwest Territories and Quebec. I focus on some of the challenges that Indigenous people are confronted with in the context of public service provision and access and more generally the complex relation of Indigenous peoples and the different orders of government. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this edpisode I’ll first talk a little about my current issues in methodology and data collection, and then discuss some preliminary findings from the first case study which was in Quebec, the French speaking province of Canada. I talked to staff of the public ombuds institution, to citizens as well as to NGO and government representatives to get an in-depth understanding of the current situation on the challenges of access to and provision of public service. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

Send a textIn this episode I will explain the research design and methodology for this project, which will build primarily on interviews and participatory observation. I will talk about case study selection, my comparative approach, the particularities of doing research in public bodies, and the challenges of gaining access to the research field; that is, first of all access to public ombuds institutions in countries of both the Global South and the Global North, but then also to citizens in the respective places. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.htmlSee more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].