Datafied child welfare services: unpacking politics, economics and power

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Redden, Joanna; Dencik, Lina and Warne, Harry. 2020. Datafied child welfare services: unpacking politics, economics and power. Policy Studies, 41(5), pp. 507-526. ISSN 0144-2872 [Article]

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2020.1724928

Abstract or Description

This article analyses three distinct child welfare data systems in England. We focus on child welfare as a contested area in public services where data systems are being used to inform decision-making and transforming governance. We advance the use of "data assemblage" as an analytical framework to detail how key political and economic factors influence the development of these data systems. We provide an empirically grounded demonstration of why child welfare data systems must not be considered neutral decision aid tools. We identify how systems of thought, ownership structures, policy agendas, organizational practices, and legal frameworks influence these data systems. We find similarities in the move toward greater sharing of sensitive data, but differences in attitudes toward public-private partnerships, rights and uses of prediction. There is a worrying lack of information available about the impacts of these systems on those who are subject to them - particularly in relation to predictive data systems. We argue for policy debates to go beyond technical fixes and privacy concerns to engage with fundamental questions about the power dynamics and rights issues linked to the expansion of data sharing in this sector as well as whether predictive data systems should be used at all.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2020.1724928

Additional Information:

Funding: This work was supported by The Open Society Foundations.

Keywords:

Dataﬁcation; child welfare;data assemblage; predictiveanalytics; data systems

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Dates: