La centralità dei dati per un welfare che cambia. Una sfida per la ricerca sociale

The so-called digital welfare deeply rests on data. Whatever the function attributed to them – forecasting, quantifying, locating social needs or supporting decision-making processes, the renewed centrality of data for welfare, due to the technological innovations of detection and processing data strategies, implies another centrality: that of citizens, the main stakeholders of welfare services and now, in the so-called «digital society», also basic suppliers of the data and information that welfare uses. All this makes research ethics a strategic field of reflection and action, not only in itself, but also a factor that influences the quality of the data collected. The essay supports the thesis according to which «ethics of means» – a deontological approach based on the respect for the person and data confidentiality – should be more systematically supported by an «ethics of ends» - a consequentialist approach focused on the sharing with citizens of the public extensive and democratic benefits of data collection campaigns.