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Within the context of digital automation and profiling in the public sector, the rule of law and its inherent principle of legal certainty are highly debated concepts in relation to the desirable values and norms of equal treatment, transparency, and impartiality. However, scholars and policymakers disagree over whether automated decision-making (ADM) is beneficial for legal certainty. This debate highlights the ambiguity embedded in the substantive meaning of legal certainty. This article aims to analyze how the principle of legal certainty is interpreted and defined during the practical application of ADM in welfare services and to discuss the theoretical prerequisites for these definitions to be realized in ADM processes. The empirical case is the Swedish Public Employment Service, which makes extensive use of a statistical ADM tool for decision-making about whether or not to provide support to jobseekers. While the implementation of ADM by welfare institutions has been encouraged due to the assumption that it strengthens public and democratic principles, the study shows that, in practice, ADM processes are perceived as non-transparent and generate a relatively large proportion of incorrect decisions. This may be specifically disadvantageous for vulnerable individuals, who run the risk of being incorrectly denied the right kind of support while at the same time having a greater need for welfare support. The widespread future use of ADM in welfare services may affect how welfare rights and obligations and public principles are met in a new technological era.

Abstract
Starting from the tension between scientific autonomy and state governing in research policy, the aim of this article is to examine how researchers who apply for funding in Sweden perceive the legitimate grounds for a new research policy in which sex and gender perspectives are integrated as criteria in assessing scientific quality. Our results show that researcher's perception of themselves, and of the purpose of research, is compatible with dominant ideals in contemporary academic landscape, where knowledge is treated as a deliverable to external stakeholders or to meet politically formulated goals. However, according to researchers, the legitimate sources of policy influence originate from their own profession or the common interest of the people, explicitly expressed by citizens. Researchers are questioning, and find strategies to avoid, top-down state governing.

AbstractOver the past few decades, Sweden has established itself as a "world leader" in gender equality. Alongside this development, Swedish politicians have also initiated ambitious plans that aim to establish the country as "world class" in terms of digitalization. International research shows that women and racialized groups are in a minority in the design processes, that AI facial recognition systems are built with white male faces as the norm, and that digital tools replicate racial injustices. In this paper, we are interested in if, and if so how, gender equality is articulated and thus filled with meaning in national policies on AI and digitalization. The overall aim is to discuss the potential of gender (equality) mainstreaming to challenge systems of privilege in the implementation of AI systems in the public sector. The paper analyses how gender equality is filled with meaning in national policy documents on AI and gender equality. The main findings show that gender equality is turned into a question of lack of knowledge and information, which in turn blocks out an understanding of gender equality as something that is related to gendered power relations.