SURVEILWEL: Social Security Surveillance: Digital Seams in the Social Safety Net

ABOUT THE PROJECT

SURVEILWEL is a postdoctoral MSCA project, undertaken by Dr. Lior Volinz under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Aleš Završnik. Dr. Lior Volinz’s research interests are in surveillance and security studies, he defended his PhD at the University of Amsterdam, then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and completed his master’s thesis at the University of Ljubljana.

The SURVEILWEL project addresses the issue of welfare surveillance. Automated data collection and algorithmic decision-making tools are increasingly integrated into social policies. They are used primarily to decide which citizens are eligible for welfare benefits and services, who can be quickly excluded from the process, and who should be investigated for potential fraud. Although these surveillance measures in the field of social security are presented to the public as a harmless technological advance, these tools are changing the structure of the social safety net. While they support the work of social services and potentially improve their efficiency, they also reduce the discretion and human factor in social workers’ decision-making, introduce hidden biases into the assessment process and place citizens who apply for social benefits in difficult times in the position of constant suspects. The SURVEILWEL project will collect qualitative data through ethnographic fieldwork in various social service institutions in Slovenia where technologically advanced or automated assessment of entitlement to social benefits and assistance is used, in order to examine these new technologies in practice and their effects. The project aims to provide an overview of the work processes, institutions and data flows involved in the verification of entitlement to social protection services and in the investigation of suspected fraud; to critically evaluate the unintended and differentiated consequences that have arisen with the introduction of digital and automated tools for the control of social benefits; and assess how we could improve the tools for monitoring social benefits in such a way as to ensure better social and material interventions by social services. We will prepare tangible and useful insights into the functioning of the digital surveillance of the welfare state, with which our project aims to inform Slovenian and European experts in the field of social policy, employees in social services and also citizens about the advantages and disadvantages of digital surveillance of beneficiaries of social security services. when it comes to issues of the form, structure, inclusion and responsibility of the welfare state in the future.

Project Type: HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships – European Fellowships

Duration: 1. 9. 2024 – 31. 8. 2026

More info: CORDIS.