A just state for everyone? Researching access to administrative justice in the digital era
In this podcast I will give insights into my research project on access to justice in the context of increasing digitalization of public services. The project's starting point is the observation that the digital transformation of public services comes along with two interlinked challenges: the risk of social groups being excluded from these services (digital inequality) and, as a result, restricted access to justice - a fundamental right that is also a prerequisite to exercising other rights. Applying a qualitative mixed-methods approach in a multi-sited case study I will investigate citizens' experiences as well as public ombud institutions' practices in promoting equal access to administrative justice for all.
Find more information here: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice
This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970]. For open access purposes, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.
Episodes
13 episodes
Episode 13: Special Episode: IISL Research Line 'AI and New Technologies'
In this special episode we will hear about the new Research Line 'AI and New Technologies' introduced by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) in 2026. The Institute was established in Oñati, Gipuzkoa, Spain in 1988 by the...
Episode 12: Collaborators' experiences II: South Africa, Sint Maarten, Austria
This is part II of collaborators' experiences: In this episode, you will learn about the experiences of interviewers and colleagues who actively contributed to the research process in the scope of this project. Colleagues from South Africa, Sin...
Episode 11: Field research in Korea: Collaborators' experiences
In this and the next episode, you will have the chance to meet the people I collaborated with during field research and for data generation. In today's episode, we will hear about the experiences of three persons who contributed to the research...
Episode 10: Opposing digitality and AI: citizens' practices
In this episode we explore a topic that has come up in all our case studies in the different world regions, even though in different forms, namely opposition and resistance to the state’s increasing use of digital tools and AI. From South Afric...
Episode 9: Omnipresent digitality and AI’s limits: South Korean experiences
In this episode I share insights from my field research in South Korea, one of the leading countries in the domain of digitalization and AI. I discuss the omnipresence of digitality, which refers to the condition of living in a digital culture,...
Episode 8: Digital Challenges in South Africa
In this episode we explore current challenges with regard to accessing public services in the digital age in South Africa, in particular in the rural areas. Accounts from different perspectives - citizen, government official and public ombuds s...
Episode 7: The role of language in accessing administrative justice
In this episode I share interviewees' accounts from my case studies in Canada, South Africa, Curacao and Sint Maarten on the issue of language, linguistic diversity and literacy when it comes to accessing public services and the justice system....
Episode 6: From automation to frustration
In this episode we discuss some of the experiences people have when they try to get in contact with the public administration. Especially (semi-)automated telephone hotlines create frustration among citizens who want or need to talk to a public...
Episode 5: Interview with two sociologists in the Caribbean on digitalization
In this episode I have the pleasure of introducing to you two sociologists who live and work in the Caribbean and whom I had the great pleasure to meet during my field research stay in the beginning of 2024. Elly Helings in Curaçao and Raymond ...
Episode 4: Indigenous people and public services in Canada
In this episode I share with you some insights from my case studies in Canada, concretely in the Northwest Territories and Quebec. I focus on some of the challenges that Indigenous people are confronted with in the context of public service pro...
Episode 3: Thoughts on the first case study: imposed digitalization in Canada
In this edpisode I’ll first talk a little about my current issues in methodology and data collection, and then discuss some preliminary findings from the first case study which was in Quebec, the French speaking province of Canada. I talked to ...
Episode 2: Research design & field access
In this episode I will explain the research design and methodology for this project, which will build primarily on interviews and participatory observation. I will talk about case study selection, my comparative approach, the particularities of...
Episode 1: Introduction
Welcome to the first episode of this podcast about my research project which started in February 2023. In this introductory episode I will explain my research interest and approach. The study focuses on the digital transformation of public serv...