STATETECH · State-tech relations in the datafied welfare state: Examining the computational transformation of the European social model

Use of data-driven technologies by public bodies is now well-established across central pillars of European welfare states, from predictive benefit fraud in social security to safeguarding apps in schools to algorithmic diagnostics in health. Yet we still lack a proper understanding of what the datafied welfare state entails, and, crucially, what its relationship with the providers of such technologies is, and with what implications. This project investigates the relationship between the welfare state and digital technology providers in the context of data-driven innovation and explores what this means for a European social model. It is premised on two significant assumptions: 1) the relationship between digital technology providers and the welfare state is qualitatively different from previous and other forms of service provision; and 2) the European social model is transitioning towards a socio-technical model that has implications for welfare state functions. STATETECH investigates four lines of enquiry: a) governmentality; b) infrastructure; c) rentierism; and d) political regulation in order to assess a new institutional formation I refer to as the ‘tenant-state’. It explores both pan-European tendencies as well as specificities across different welfare regimes and is groundbreaking in five different respects: i) it situates computational transformations of the European social model in context by testing theories of new forms of state; ii) it connects ongoing debates in critical data studies with political and economic sociology around the future of the welfare state; iii) it addresses an uncharted but rapidly emerging shift in government relations with service provision; iv) it combines archival research with socio-technical modes of investigation to inform analysis of computational transformations; and v) it maps and advances (new) imaginaries and practices of state-tech relations suitable for a transition towards a European socio-technical model.