Article ID: CBB408589504

Bearing Account-able Witness to the Ethical Algorithmic System (January 2016)

unapi

This paper explores how accountability might make otherwise obscure and inaccessible algorithms available for governance. The potential import and difficulty of accountability is made clear in the compelling narrative reproduced across recent popular and academic reports. Through this narrative we are told that algorithms trap us and control our lives, undermine our privacy, have power and an independent agential impact, at the same time as being inaccessible, reducing our opportunities for critical engagement. The paper suggests that STS sensibilities can provide a basis for scrutinizing the terms of the compelling narrative, disturbing the notion that algorithms have a single, essential characteristic and a predictable power or agency. In place of taking for granted the terms of the compelling narrative, ethnomethodological work on sense-making accounts is drawn together with more conventional approaches to accountability focused on openness and transparency. The paper uses empirical material from a study of the development of an “ethical,” “smart” algorithmic videosurveillance system. The paper introduces the “ethical” algorithmic surveillance system, the approach to accountability developed, and some of the challenges of attempting algorithmic accountability in action. The paper concludes with reflections on future questions of algorithms and accountability.

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Article Malte Ziewitz (January 2016) Governing Algorithms: Myth, Mess, and Methods. Science, Technology and Human Values (pp. 3-16). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB408589504/

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Authors & Contributors
Fernanda Bruno
Guilhon, Luciana
JafariNaimi, Nassim
Louise Amoore
Crawford, Kate
Ziewitz, Malte
Concepts
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Algorithms
Technology and politics
Technological determinism
Surveillance
Ethics
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
18th century
Places
United States
China
Korea
Great Britain
Institutions
Amazon (Firm)
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