Invited talk by Joanna Redden

Studying the Impacts of Automated Welfare- Why Politics and Power Matter

Automation too often occurs without investigations of impact, consultation and ensuring rights of refusal. This is despite the significant body of research demonstrating how automated decision making systems have led to harm by increasing discrimination, inequity, injustice, surveillance and wrongful denial of services. Our collective experiences with automation are influenced by the ubiquity of data collection, processing and profiling across our social, political and economic lives. This latest digital turn has meant unprecedented power and wealth for the owners of the largest tech companies whose decision-making influences our democratic institutions and information ecosystems, as well as our social and environmental well-being. This paper argues that our futures depend on our ability to contend with the power dynamics intersecting our datafied lives. Drawing on transnational case study investigations, I suggest that doing so requires a focus on the impacts of automation, learning from people working to prevent harm and mobilizing collective actions.