A just state for everyone? Researching access to administrative justice in the digital era

Julia Dahlvik
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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. 

  1. Jul 9

    Episode 13: Special Episode: IISL Research Line 'AI and New Technologies'

    Send us Fan Mail 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 International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on the Sociology of Law and the Government of the Basque Country. 'AI and New Technologies' is one of six Research Lines; it is coordinated by Germano Schwartz (University La Salle) and Stefan Larsson (Lund University). The Research Line brings together scholars from around the world to explore how AI and emerging technologies are reshaping society and legal systems, focusing on challenges in legitimacy, accountability, rights, and institutional adaptation. In this podcast episode I will talk with Camilo Umaña, Director of the Institute, Germano Schwartz and Stefan Larsson to learn more about the aims and ideas of the new Research Line. The episode thus deals with the broader research context to which my project and the previous episodes are related.  Find more details about the Research Line and the IISL here: https://www.iisj.net/en/research/2026-research-lines/3-ai-and-new-technologies See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  2. Mar 16

    Episode 12: Collaborators' experiences II: South Africa, Sint Maarten, Austria

    Send us Fan Mail 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, Sint Maarten and Austria will share how they perceived the research process in their local contexts. They will talk about the moments they liked as well as the challenges they encountered both concerning interviewing citizens about their experiences with public services in the digital era and concerning the project more generally.  See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  3. Feb 9

    Episode 11: Field research in Korea: Collaborators' experiences

    Send us Fan Mail 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 in the scope of my field research in South Korea. Jiin, Anna and HyunSeung Joo explain what they liked about our collaboration and their work in the project as well as the challenges they encountered. They each contributed to the study in different and essential ways: by facilitating field access, by conducting interviews, and by interpreting interviews.  See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  4. 10/31/2025

    Episode 10: Opposing digitality and AI: citizens' practices

    Send us Fan Mail 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 Africa to Canada, from the Caribbean to South Korea – everywhere there are at parts of the population that do not necessarily agree with how their public administration digitalizes and automates its services. Scholars agree that modern society functions as a complex human-machine social system, where machines are not merely tools but active participants in shaping social outcomes. This presumption becomes particularly prevalent in the context of citizen-state interaction, where a power imbalance is already inscribed. In this episode we thus look at citizens’ resistant practices vis-à-vis governments’ use of technology. See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  5. 06/23/2025

    Episode 9: Omnipresent digitality and AI’s limits: South Korean experiences

    Send us Fan Mail 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, as I encountered it in public space and in interviews with people working in the public sector. The interview partners highlight that there are certain things AI cannot do (yet) and that in some cases there is only a thin line between protection and surveillance, for instance, regarding the so-called smart plug which monitors movements in people's homes. The full photo documentation can be found here: juliadahlvik.wordpress.com See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  6. 03/15/2025

    Episode 8: Digital Challenges in South Africa

    Send us Fan Mail 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 staff - identify similar problems, such as lacking infrastructure, expensive data, trust issues, literacy and digital literacy. Despite numerous policy programs by the government, implementation is slow, leading to parts of society being left behind in case of a digital-first public administration.   See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  7. 11/24/2024

    Episode 7: The role of language in accessing administrative justice

    Send us Fan Mail 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. People's experiences in these very different places demonstrate the universality of the problem, when public services and courts cannot be accessed in the languages the people actually speak. Illiteracy, of course, makes it even more difficult to follow an administrative or legal procedure.   See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

  8. 09/05/2024

    Episode 6: From automation to frustration

    Send us Fan Mail 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 agent. Our interviewees from the case study in Quebec, Canada, report about long waiting times and the impossibility of reaching the right person for a certain matter. Importantly, the administration is deemed to shirk its responsibility not only by outsourcing administrative tasks to the citizens but also by appearing as an anonymous entity both on the phone and in email communication. Citizens don't know who they are interacting with, so noone in particular can be held responsible for certain information that was provided or actions that were taken by the agent.  See more on the project: https://www.hcw.ac.at/en/forschung/projekte-und-aktivitaeten/digital-public-services-and-ombuds-role-in-access-to-justice.html See more on my work: https://personen.hcw.ac.at/julia-dahlvik/ This research is funded by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [grant DOI 10.55776/V970].

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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. 

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