ABSTRACT
Algorithmic tools play an increasingly important role in the political economy of disability welfare, as governments seek to achieve greater efficiencies and cost savings by automating processes that previously involved human discretion. While automated decision-making (ADM) is now commonplace in the public sector, it is also widely used by private companies to whom governments have delegated the responsibilities of administering disability benefits and services. This chapter examines how ADM is transforming the political economy of disability welfare by placing de facto decision-making powers in the hands of private technology companies. Privately owned and operated ADM systems, I argue, are displacing health professionals and public officials as arbiters of how public resources are allocated (or not allocated) among people with disabilities. The chapter illustrates this argument through two case-studies of outsourced ADM. In the UK, technological outsourcing has concentrated decision-making powers among a small number of global tech giants, while in Arkansas, US, outsourced ADM serves to disguise intentional government strategies aimed at reducing disability welfare spending. The chapter theorizes outsourced ADM as a form of biopower, exercised through the systematic extraction, digital transformation, and commodification of disability and health data for governance purposes.
