The Digital Empowerment Paradox: The Experience in Denmark

Abstract

Many paradoxes accompany the vast digitalization taking place in society today. There is a digitalization paradox; there are myriad cybersecurity paradoxes;and there are digital versions of other well-known paradoxes. This paper explains a paradox arising when nations (or organizations) seek to improve society (or operations) by empowering citizens (or clients) and governance (or processes) through digitalization. This empowerment paradox results from the use of digitalization to empower a class of digitalization beneficiaries that simultaneously disempowers a class of digitalization victims. The effects on these classes of people or organizations may be intended or unintended. This paper uses historical research methodology to examine the case of the digitalization of Denmark, one of the most digitalized nations in the World. Our study of the development of this national digitalization experience is a cycle of victory in achieving massive digitalization accompanied by defeat in helping to victimize its citizens and other stakeholders.