Review of “Machine Habitus: Toward a Sociology of Algorithms”

Zajko, Mike

doi:10.1093/sf/soac071

Cited by 11 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…We conceptualise and refer to Google Search as a social agent that through negotiating relevance and visibility contributes to societal meaning-making (Airoldi, 2022) in relation to environmental issues. To understand how and where this social agent is part of practices and cultural imaginaries, we draw on the figure of the configuration.…”

Section: Google Search Relevance and New Knowledge/ignorance Configur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this, Google and Google Search are no different from other actors in an information ecosystem, but its invisible yet ubiquitous curatorial role (Andersen, 2018) means that the platform must be understood as a key participant in the creation of meaning in society (cf. Airoldi, 2022). It should be clear, then, that Google Search, as part of the production of order and shape of knowledge in society, is also involved in the production of ignorance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Google Search and the creation of ignorance: The case of the climate crisis

Haider

Rödl

2023

Big Data & Society

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The article examines the relationship between commercial search engines, using Google Search as an example, and various forms of ignorance related to climate change. It draws on concepts from the field of agnotology to explore how environmental ignorances, and specifically related to the climate crisis, are shaped at the intersection of the logics of Google Search, everyday life and civil society/politics. Ignorance refers to a multi-facetted understanding of the culturally contingent ways in which something may not be known. Two research questions are addressed: How are environmental ignorances, and in particular related to the climate crisis, shaped at the intersection of the logics of Google Search, everyday life and civil society/politics? In what ways can we conceptualise Google's role as configured into the creation of ignorances? The argument is made through four vignettes, each of which explores and illustrates how Google Search is configured into a different kind of socially produced ignorance: (1) Ignorance through information avoidance: climate anxiety; (2) Ignorance through selective choice: gaming search terms; (3) Ignorance by design: algorithmically embodied emissions; (4) Ignorance through query suggestions: directing people to data voids. The article shows that while Google Search and its underlying algorithmic and commercial logic pre-figure these ignorances, they are also co-created and co-maintained by content producers, users and other human and non-human actors, as Google Search has become integral of social practices and ideas about them. The conclusion draws attention to a new logic of ignorance that is emerging in conjunction with a new knowledge logic.

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Section: Google Search Relevance and New Knowledge/ignorance Configur...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Google Search and the creation of ignorance: The case of the climate crisis

Haider

Rödl

2023

Big Data & Society

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“…To do so, we should avoid a technological determinism that disregards the agency of the participants in the formation of networked publics (see Møller Hartley et al, 2021). Instead, the rhythms of media rituals here operate as feedback loops that enable the path-dependent circulation of media texts (Airoldi, 2022). Insofar as participants leave affect-laden digital footprints during communication about the event, algorithms shape patterns of ritualised communication (Couldry and Hepp, 2018).…”

Section: Rhythms Of Performativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking affective publics as media rituals through temporality, performativity and liminality

Ural

2023

Media, Culture & Society

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This article calls for a rethinking of the formation of affective publics as a ritual process. Given the particularities of networked media, I suggest that media rituals extend into the formation of affective publics celebrating imagined collectivities in a fashion of collaborative storytelling. This is a transitional process in which a collectivity is validated, affirmed and reinforced through ritual actions. To illustrate this dynamic, I suggest drawing upon three key concepts (namely temporality, performativity and liminality), which are derivatives of media rituals theory, but also shed light on the dynamics of affective publics. To specify, first, ritual temporality refers to ambient concentrations that create a breach in the ordinary flow of media texts. Second, performativity implicates the affect-driven rhythms of digital storytelling feeding algorithmic curations that form an embodied harmony between participants and a sense of collectivity. Third, liminality entails ambiguous situations that enable the formation of affective publics by means of voluntary commitment, anonymity and the uniformity of participants. These concepts are the key entry points in capturing the ritual aspects of affective publics. Viewed through this lens, scrutiny for the ritual dynamics of networked publics helps us to grasp the affective formations of networked media.

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“…There is a growing volume of theoretical proposals describing the role of the relational context in data studies (Airoldi, 2022;Loukissas, 2019;Mattoni, 2020;Nost and Goldstein, 2021). Most of these relate to critical data studies that seek to break down the universal understanding of the datafication (Kitchin and Lauriault, 2018).…”

Section: The Relationality Of Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But this is not always the caseboundaries are open and contested by disputes and conducted by various actors from different positions (Bourdieu, 2021: 9). Airoldi (2022) highlights that situatedness applies to datafied contexts in which both humans and machine learning systems operate, e.g. in the context of social media or digital platforms.…”

Section: The Relationality Of Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Data arenas: The relational dynamics of data activism

Ślosarski

2023

Big Data & Society

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The article proposes the theoretical category of data arenas as a relational field for strategic actors in diverse areas of the contentious politics of data (Beraldo and Milan, 2019). The paper argues that the conceptualization of data activism needs to be related to the immediate data arena in which the action takes place, in order to select the interactive opportunities and threats for emerging data-driven repertoires of action. To fully work through the relational dynamics of data activism, it is necessary to move from a conceptualization of data infrastructure to the notion of data arenas as an ‘open-ended bundle of rules and resources that allows certain kinds of interaction to proceed’ (Jasper, 2006: 141). Using the case of environmental data activism, I highlight four key dimensions to study: (a) strategic use of data as capital that differentiates and positions actors, as well as influences their further choices; (b) practices of defining the boundaries of the problem on which the arena focuses and outlining the pool of actors who participate in the process of solving it; (3) sets of relationships among the outlined pool of actors which represent opportunities and threats for the actors, related to the position they occupy within an arena; and (4) power as the ability to control and shape an arena. Data arena approach shed new light on data activism as a relational practice, combining the latest developments in research on data contexts and the political situatedness of data with the emerging field of research on data activism.

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Review of “Machine Habitus: Toward a Sociology of Algorithms”

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Google Search and the creation of ignorance: The case of the climate crisis

Google Search and the creation of ignorance: The case of the climate crisis

Rethinking affective publics as media rituals through temporality, performativity and liminality

Data arenas: The relational dynamics of data activism

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