Mid Sweden University

Though ‘digitalization’ has become a buzzword and policy objective in public-sector development, the struggle tograsp and define it as a modern phenomenon continues. Furthermore, research has long shown that it is difficult to extractthe value with which digitalization is associated. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is to uncover the enactment bya specific set of actors of digitalization as production and reproduction practices. We interviewed a group of governmentallysanctioned regional digitalization coordinators to identify how digitalization was translated and implemented by the appointedprofessionals. We applied Orlikowski and Gash’s three levels of technology (nature, strategy, and use) and combined thesewith Feenberg’s matrix of four views on technology to produce an analytical framework. Our findings show that the making ofdigitalization can be described like ‘nailing jelly to a wall’, owing to the lack description of its capabilities and functionalities,coupled with a raison d’etre that is highly elusive beyond ‘change’, in very general terms. 

The intensified use of digital technologies in the public sector, which is commonly referred to as “digitalization,” is associated with the pursuit of a range of values. Values reflect notions of desirability, and they are expressed in strategic government documents. In this paper, we argue that the study of narratives in policies is important since they constitute starting points for the operationalization of strategic intent. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the narratives of the digitalization strategies that have been articulated by Swedish local government. We applied a theoretical framework that consists of four value ideals (professionalism, efficiency, service, and engagement), and we combined it with directed content analysis to analyze the strategies in question. Most of the statements in the strategies anticipate beneficial outcomes of digitalization and articulate few risks. The most common value proposal refers to the congruence between values of improved service and increased efficiency, while engagement values are less common. Moreover, the strategies draw on a repository of general and identical optimistic statements, which we refer to as the “parrot syndrome.” In addition, the methods that are used to evaluate values lack specificity. These findings contribute to the literature on the discursive landscape of digitalization by a comprehensive analysis of the value positions that are articulated in local government strategies. The paper concludes with three proposals for further research, namely to perform similar studies in other contexts, to study the enactment of e-Government strategies, and to investigate the aforementioned “parrot syndrome.”

Public-sector digitalization has gained traction over the years, and with it has come a flood of official documents (policies and grey literature) highlighting what the (digital) future is supposed to look like and proposing a range of digital solutions to inspire action. Such policies and strategic documents propose what will be important in future societies. In this paper, we employ the policy-analysis framework, ‘what’s the problem represented to be’ (WPR), first developed by Bacchi. We conducted a workshop with a Swedish municipality, inviting key actors to work with the idea of digitalization to re-read their digitalization policy in light of the WPR framework. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what surfaced when the policymakers and public servants used WPR to dissect their own digitalization policy. The results show that the key actors’ reflections centred around the value of the policy itself, and the WPR framework seemed to enhance their ability to reflect upon the usability of the policy and the work needed to implement and evaluate it. Furthermore, they pinpointed that the digitalization policy appeared rather naïve in terms of contextual factors (lack of recontextualisation on the municipal level) and hindrances (lack of resources to tackle existing hindrances).