Article
ID: CBB464566019

Politicizing Algorithms by Other Means: Toward Inquiries for Affective Dissensions (2023)

unapi
Science and technology studies (STS) Computer science Affect Algorithms Technology and politics Latour, Bruno

In this paper, we build upon Bruno Latour's political writings to address the current impasse regarding algorithms in public life. We assert that the increasing difficulties at governing algorithms—be they qualified as "machine learning," "big data," or "artificial intelligence"—can be related to their current ontological thinness: deriving from constricted views on theoretical practices, algorithms' standard definition as problem-solving computerized methods provides poor grips for affective dissensions. We then emphasize on the role historical and ethnographic studies of algorithms can potentially play in the politicization of algorithms. By both digging into the genealogy of algorithms' constricted definition and by making their contemporary constitutive relationships more visible, both historical and ethnographic studies can contribute to vascularizing algorithms and making them objects of enlarged disputes. We conclude by giving a flavor of the political potential of the vascularization efforts we call for, using materials from an ethnographic study conducted in a computer science laboratory.

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Authors & Contributors
Tatarchenko, Ksenia
Jaton, Florian
Copeland, B. Jack
Donner, Martin
Fisher, Erik
Olarte Sierra, María Fernanda
Journals
Science, Technology, and Human Values
Social Studies of Science
Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
British Society for the History of Mathematics Bulletin
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
Perspectives on Science
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
MIT Press
The MIT Press
Docent Press
Concepts
Algorithms
Science and technology studies (STS)
Computer science
Technology and politics
Affect
Cold War
People
al-Khwārizmī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā
Church, Alonzo
Gödel, Kurt
Turing, Alan Mathison
Kleene, Stephen C.
Latour, Bruno
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
Places
Soviet Union
United States
Colombia
Institutions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
Stanford University
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