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A Case Study of The Practical Use of a Case Management System - A Praxiography of a Danish Employment Agency

Term

4. term

Publication year

2022

Submitted on

Pages

55

Abstract

In recent years there has been an ongoing debate about the employment sector and in particular about the use of predictive-technologies, which have been implemented on a large-scale in the everyday practice of the caseworkers in Danish Jobcenters. This paper uncovers the practical use of a case-management system with predictive elements (ASTA) in the context of a small municipal employment agency whose target group are academics. The methodological approach of this project draws on the praxiographic approach of Annemarie Mol as laid out in The Body Multiple (2002).Our findings show how different practices are reconfigured as a result of the socio-technical entanglements between the functionalities of ASTA and caseworkers of the employment agency. Our findings show how the design of case-management systems should be more locally grounded and be continuously developed by taking into account the concrete socio-technical practices. We propose a range of practical improvements that will provide a higher degree of caseworker autonomy in choosing and designing their own personalized user-interface. The findings of this paper are important since they show how practices, and therefore the services offered to the clients of the unemployment sector are socio-technical affairs, that should be investigated by following the actors in close proximity.