PNRR per la Missione 4, Componente 2, Investimento 1.2 - D.D.201 del 03/07/2024 - codice progetto SOE2024_0000096 - CUP J43C24000910006 - Finanziato dall'Unione europea Next Generation EU

PERSON analyses changes in the bureaucratic encounter and in the discretion of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) when access to services becomes digital. By studying the use of the unemployment application platforms DID online, PERSON investigates how digital bureaucratic encounters influence the discretion of SLBs, and aims to develop guidelines for inclusive public platform design, overcoming barriers related to gender, age, disability and ethnicity. In line with the 2026 theme of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the project core idea is that digital practices are changing not only the way SLBs use their discretion, but also the nature of the bureaucratic encounter between users and SLBs; consequently, it seems necessary to investigate the relationship between these two actors mediated by digital public platforms.

PERSON closely examine the digital bureaucratic relationship, also focusing on an intersectional perspective. The research spans over three years and will be carried out by two researchers within three Italian regions with three different levels of digitisation of the public sector. The Emilia-Romagna region has been chosen considering its ambition to foster digital and technological innovation through a digital agenda whose 2020-2025 plan set the goal of making Emilia-Romagna a Data Valley for the Common Good by supporting both organisations and citizens with information and specific training to make digital services available to everyone.

In Piedmont, the digitalisation process is more advanced, so much so that the region has been labelled as the artificial intelligence capital of Italy. In fact, the most sophisticated tools for matching supply and demand of work based on artificial intelligence are currently being discussed at regional level. Sicily, on the other hand, is distinguished by lower levels of digitalization of its ppublic administration: the regional Cabinet for Digital Public Administration was set up to begin digitising services only in 2023. As the DID online unemployment application can be managed either within the National MyAnpal platform or within individual regional portals, the differences between the involved regions’ portals will also be considered. At a methodological level, creative tools for digital qualitative research (such as Digital Subsystem Technique and Vignette Technique for Internet Based Research) will be developed and used, under the supervision of an international advisory board of experts in SLB theory, digital innovation and comparative research.

The final objective is to develop guidelines for an inclusive platform for the public sector: the design phase will be carried out with the participation of associations active on the local territories (e.g. Labas Bologna, Non Una di Meno, AFADI Palermo). Guidelines will also be discussed with the programmers of the MyAnpal platform.

Procedure di selezione:

Procedure aperte:

• BANDO 522_2025_Paraciani_GIOVANI RICERCATORI PNRR - prot. 522 - Scadenza: 20 giugno 2025 h. 12:00
• Allegato A