The Digital Infrastructuring of Welfare: Informative Configurations and the Governance of Public Knowledge

Journal title WELFARE E ERGONOMIA
Author/s Eleonora Costantini, Paolo Borghi, Matteo Rinaldini
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/1
Language Italian Pages 14 P. 27-40 File size 97 KB
DOI 10.3280/WE2026-0001003
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This paper examines the digital infrastructuring of welfare policies as a socio-organisational process shaping the production, circulation and use of public knowledge. Drawing on the Digital Government Transformation literature and adopting a relational and processual perspective, digital infrastructures are conceptualised as socio-technical assemblages that reconfigure interactions, practices and power relations among institutional and non-institutional actors. The analysis is based on a qualitative case study of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Housing Allowance Scheme, drawing on interviews, document analysis and observation of administrative processes. The findings identify a set of informational configurations structuring the phases of data input, storage, analysis and public use, revealing informational asymmetries, coordination costs and a selective valorisation of standardised data. The paper argues that digitalisation is not neutral: it tends to reinforce a managerial-administrative model of public knowledge governance, privileging evaluative and allocative functions while marginalising qualitative forms of knowledge that are essential for ensuring welfare policies remain responsive to complex social needs.

Keywords: digital infrastructure; local welfare; public knowledge; digital government transformation; informational configurations; power relations.

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Eleonora Costantini, Paolo Borghi, Matteo Rinaldini, Infrastrutturazione digitale del welfare: configurazioni informative emergenti nella governance della conoscenza pubblica in "WELFARE E ERGONOMIA" 1/2026, pp 27-40, DOI: 10.3280/WE2026-0001003