The CDW originally grew out of research conducted in context of a research project, which is currently (2020) being finalized. This project is called 'Data as Relation: Governance in the Age of Big Data' (DaR), it is supported by The Velux Foundations with DKK 7,6 mio, and it has been running in 2016-2020. The DaR project focussed on the numerous new uses to which data are put in the Danish public sector, as well as on how existing work practices are challenged because of these uses. The DaR project found that one of the things big data has brought to practices of governing, is a redistribution of responsibility for using data for management purposes. Put briefly, everybody in a given organization is expected to take responsibility for harnessing insights from new kinds of digital data sources, and existing ways of knowing the organization are put under pressure, as are the technologies already in use. Managing this process is difficult, and much time and effort is spent figuring out the organization from the inside. You can find more about the DaR project, its various subprojects and a list of publications by clicking here.
From the DaR project grew another research project: 'Welfare after Digitalization' (WaD). This newly initiated project, which is supported by the Velux Foundations with DKK 6 mio and running in 2020-2024, asks the question: What happens to welfare after digitalization? Taking digitalization, not as a promise about the tech society of a near future, the WaD project focuses on four key welfare sectors – Health, Law Enforcement, Education, and Local Governance – and the WaD researchers take the temperature of the digitalized welfare state. To learn more about the WaD project, please have a look here.
Most recently, a new research project called 'Everyday Digitization' has been initiated in April 2020 to collect data on the possible transformations of digital habits during the Covid-19 pandemic. To learn more about the project or to sign up as interviewee, please have a look here.