If ... then : algorithmic power and politics

Resource Information

The work If ... then : algorithmic power and politics represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

If ... then : algorithmic power and politics

Title remainder

algorithmic power and politics

Statement of responsibility

Taina Bucher

Creator

• Bucher, Taina

Subject

• Artificial intelligence -- Social aspects
• Big data -- Social aspects
• Algorithms -- Social aspects
• Information technology -- Social aspects
• Information society -- Social aspects

Language

eng

Summary

We live in a world in which Google's search algorithms determine how we access information, Facebook's News Feed algorithms shape how we socialize, and Netflix collaborative filtering algorithms choose the media products we consume. As such, we live algorithmic lives. Life, however, is not blindly controlled or determined by algorithms. Nor are we simply victims of an ever-expanding artificial intelligence. Rather than looking at how technologies shape or are shaped by political institutions, this book is concerned with the ways in which informational infrastructure may be considered political in its capacity to shape social and cultural life. It looks specifically at the conditions of algorithmic life - how algorithms work, both materially and discursively, to create the conditions for sociality and connectivity. The book argues that the most important aspect of algorithms is not what they are in terms of their specific technical details but rather how they become part of social practices and how different people enlist them as powerful brokers of information, communication and society. If we truly want to engage with the promises of automation and predictive analytics entailed by the promises of "big data", we also need to understand the contours of algorithmic life that condition such practices. Setting out to explore both the specific uses of algorithms and the cultural forms they generate, this book offers a novel understanding of the power and politics of algorithmic life as grounded in case studies that explore the material-discursive dimensions of software. --

Member of

• Oxford studies in digital politics

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Oxford studies in digital politics