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Displacement as Regulation: New Regulatory Technologies and Front-Line Decision-Making in Ontario Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2017

Jennifer Raso
Jennifer Raso*
Affiliation:
SJD Candidate, University of Toronto Faculty of Law Junior Fellow, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studiesjen.raso@mail.utoronto.ca
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Abstract

This paper explores how new regulatory technologies and front-line decision-makers reshape one another. Drawing on a recent qualitative study of caseworker decision-making in the Ontario Works program, it demonstrates the dialectical relationship between new case management software and caseworkers. While new technologies may attempt to deskill and decentre front-line decision-makers, transforming them into data entry clerks, caseworkers learn how to expertly translate and input client data to produce decisions that more closely match their interpretation of clients’ needs and welfare laws. The ways in which workers “manipulate the system” to produce a particular decision, though common knowledge among their colleagues, are black boxed to program managers, auditors, and benefits recipients.

Résumé

Cet article examine les façons par lesquelles les nouvelles technologies de réglementation et les décideurs de première ligne se remodèlent mutuellement. En se fondant sur une récente étude qualitative du processus de prise de décision de travailleurs sociaux du programme Ontario au travail, l’on expose la relation dialectique entre le nouveau logiciel de gestion de cas et les travailleurs sociaux. Alors que les nouvelles technologies visent à réduire le rôle et l’importance des décideurs de première ligne, transformant ceux-ci en simples commis de saisie de données, les travailleurs sociaux apprennent à traduire et à entrer les données des clients de façon à produire les décisions qui correspondent à leur perception des besoins des clients et des lois sur l’assistance sociale. La capacité des travailleurs sociaux à « manipuler le système » pour obtenir une décision donnée est bien connue d’eux-mêmes mais soigneusement cachée des gestionnaires de programmes, des vérificateurs et des bénéficiaires de prestations.

Keywords

discretionstreet-level bureaucratsregulatory technologynew public managementwelfarediscrétionbureaucrates de première lignetechnologie de réglementationnouvelle gestion publiqueassistance sociale
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , April 2017 , pp. 75 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2017 

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