From the desk to the cyborg’s faceless interaction in The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration

Abstract

We explore the shift from desk to digital services in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). This organizational shift is part of the “Channel Strategy”, which aims to route service users through multiple choices of media channel in NAV. The research question is: How do NAV service users with mental health challenges and co-occurring disorders experience the digitalization of NAV’s services? Our methodological framework is a bottom-up perspective. Our empirical sample consists of qualitative interviews with 25 service users with co-occurring disorders and challenges with mental health problems who have extensive knowledge of and experience using NAV’s services. The findings indicate a shift towards what we have termed “faceless interaction”, which refers to interactions related to users, frontline workers and the welfare system, as well as to how users respond to mediation in a digital context. In this integrated circuit, humans are responding to the terms set by technology; human interaction related to user involvement and responsibility is less prominent. The conclusion indicates that a shift towards digital social services in NAV requires new forms of skill and communication among both frontline workers in NAV and users with mental health challenges and co-occurring disorders. Keywords: Digitalization, co-occurring disorders, service user involvement, social interactions, cyborg bureaucracy