What data sharing in government tells us about the digitalization of government services: lessons from the UK Digital Economy Act

Qualitative research provides an excellent opportunity to study digitalisation. The purpose of this chapter to explore the digitalisation of government services by studying the longitudinal development data sharing practices across different parts of government in the UK. This chapter reports on a unique, qualitative, interpretive field study based on my role as a participant observer and my analysis of the discourse and contents of the various documents presented in relation to both the creation and running of data sharing practices in the UK. The chapter finds that despite government addressing many of concerns identified in the literature on data sharing, practical and perceptual issues remain, issues that tell us much about the state of digitalisation of government services.