CeDiT: Centre for digital transformation

PhD programme in Social Sciences

Profesjonsfaglig digital kompetanse for studenter og lærerutdannere i grunnskolelærerutdanningene (ProDIG) 2018-2020

Professional digital competence for students and educators in primary school education.
Project owner: University of Agder
Funded by: Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and Norgesuniversitetet.

Felles telemedisinsk løsning på Agder (Telma) 2016-2018
Funded by Norwegian Research council.
Project owner: Kristiansand municipality.
Telma is a joint telemedical solution for the region of Agder in Norway. The ambition is to establish a joint solution for all 30 municipalities in Agder county.  6 partners: Kristiansand, Farsund and Risør municipalities, South Norway Hospital (SSHF), Siemens HealthCare and Centre for ehealth at University of Agder.

GOV30: Scientific Foundations Training & Entrepreneurship Activities in the Domain of ICT-enabled Governance
The Gov 3.0 project aims at establishing ICT-enabled Governance as a vivid research domain, by providing universities, private firms and government agencies with cutting-edge knowledge on emerging technologies and policy support methods and tools. The core consortium will engage a network of affiliate partners and experts from all over the world.

Individual PhD projects

Frank Danielsen - Public organizations and their ability to cope with change
I am a PhD research fellow at the Department of Information Systems and my research area is eGovernment. My plan is to study public organizations and their ability to cope with changes. I especially want to look at how digitalization projects affect these abilities. Using mixed methods like qualitative case studies and quantitative surveys, I will be able to explore this in depth while verifying my findings. My PhD plan is estimated to last for four years, starting in 2017 and ending in 2021. My supervisors are Øystein Sæbø and Maung Kyaw Sein.

Peter André Busch - Digital Discretion Acceptance and Impact in Street-Level Bureaucracy
Abstract: Street-level bureaucracies are public organizations responsible for turning policy intentions into actions experienced by clients. They occupy street-level bureaucrats such as judges, social workers, and teachers who have extensive ability to exercise discretion. Whereas clients ideally should experience public policy implementation equally within a jurisdiction, policies are often found to be implemented differently in different contexts. Policy discrepancies have led to the criticism of discretionary practices, introducing technology as a remedy to reduce the street-level footprint in policy implementation. Whereas street-level bureaucrats may have become powerful actors, a technological impact on discretionary practices can disclose too much algorithmic imprint. This is potentially problematic since there is a fundamental difference between professional street-level work and digital work practices. Whereas street-level bureaucrats base their decisions on professional knowledge and skill sets, acquired through years of training and experience, digital tools are designed by non-professionals without any first-hand experience of street-level work. Using a mixed methods approach, I have investigated how the characteristics of street-level work can explain the acceptance and impact of digital discretion.
Supervisor: Professor Øystein Sæbø