We live in a digitalized age, and digital technologies give rise to both great hopes and grave worries about how they will transform vital dimensions of Western societies, such as democracy, health care, work life and the legal system. One hope is that use of decision-supporting and decision-making algorithms will ensure more just, cheap, and effective public administration. At the same time, concerns are raised about how their use can corrode core moral ideals and values of the welfare state by increasing discrimination, social injustice and lack of transparency and trustworthiness. Denmark is a world leading nation when it comes to public sector digitalization. It is therefore likely that moral changes due to the use of digital technologies will show up here.

Through moral philosophical analysis of empirical research of public sector digitalization and semi-structured qualitative interviews with relevant stakeholders, this project examines if there are any indications of such changes occurring in the moral landscape of the Danish welfare state, and if there is, what characterizes them.

The output of the project is an overview map documenting which, if any, public sector moral ideals and values are indicated to be under change and which new values and ideals are emerging. Furthermore, a workshop for public sector leaders is to be held in Spring 2024 in cooperation with researchers from SHAPE, the ADD-project (DPU, AU) and COMET at the Dep. of Philosophy and the History of Ideas (AU), and together with researchers from the Dep. of Law (AU) an online talk-series for an international audience, called Lessons Learned: Danish Public Sector Digitalization, is planned.