Citizen Dialogues for the future of Public Services around Life Events

One of the major current trends is the move towards ’invisible’ government and pro-active services to make government services more efficient and accessible. This implies a wide-scale adoption of digital services (e.g., AI, virtual assistants, chatbots, etc.). Provision of such services requires a very good understanding of citizen needs. 

RISE received the task to implement research focused on citizen dialogues (medborgareundersökning). The major aims of the research are to understand:

• When and how do citizens make contact with public services, when is it needed, and when is it unnecessary.
• What contacts do citizens want and not want.
• What do citizens feel confident about public administrations doing automatically "behind the scenes".

Citizen dialogues were implemented using online focus group interviews. Interviews were arranged around specific life events: "Finding somewhere to live", "Having a child in Sweden", and "Victim of crime". The analysis of data helped to identify a number of issues that citizens encounter when approaching governmental authorities today. The analysis also provided key insights about:

• Citizen's perception of personal contact and contact with automated systems.
• In which circumstance one type of contact is more preferred than another.
• Being inside and outside the system.

In the research, we have also identified the key elements important for governmental digital services, which should be in place for these services to take off. These are:

• Digital.
• Trust.
• Inclusion.

The project was implemented in close contact and in continuous dialogue with DIGG. Results of this research will be used by DIGG to formulate their vision and for discussion with different stakeholders. These include EU authorities, Swedish authorities and agencies, municipalities, regions, academia, and citizens.

Project teams involved:  Hayley Ho and Tatjana Apanasevic from Connected societies unit, and Magnus Eriksson from Societal transformation unit.