Table of Contents
1 Cover
4 Quote
6 Figures and Tables Figures Tables
7 Preface
8 1 Why Not a Sociology of Algorithms? Machines as sociological objects Algorithms and their applications, from Euclid to AlphaGo Analogue Era (–1945) Digital Era (1946–1998) Platform Era (1998–) Critical algorithm studies Open questions and feedback loops Seeing algorithms with the eyes of Pierre Bourdieu Notes
9 2 Culture in the Code Born and raised in Torpignattara Humans behind machines Machine creators Machine trainers Society in, society out Data contexts Traces and patterns Global and local Machine socialization Practical reason and machine habitus Primary and secondary machine socialization Notes
10 3 Code in the Culture The haircut appointment Algorithms: agency and authority Machine agency Computational authority Algorithmic distinctions How socialized machines interact More-than-human relations Informational asymmetry and cultural alignment A typology of user–machine interactions Platforms as techno-social fields Encapsulating and confounding Reinforcing, or transforming?
11 4 A Theory of Machine Habitus Premises Structures Social structure Digital infrastructure Entanglements Trajectories Temporality Multiplicity Boundaries Social, symbolic and automated Four scenarios of techno-social reproduction
12 5 Techno-Social Reproduction Toward a sociology of algorithms as social agents An old but new research agenda Beyond a sociology of algorithms
13 Bibliography
14 Index
List of Illustrations
1 Chapter 1Figure 1 Algorithms: a conceptual map, from Euclid to AlphaGo
2 Chapter 2Figure 2 Networks of associated words learned by IAQOS. Source: IAQOS 2019.Figure 3 An example of a phishing email targeting my professional email address, not auto...
3 Chapter 3Figure 4 On the left-hand side, related music videos network (directed); on the right-han...
4 Chapter 4Figure 5 Techno-social effects on field boundaries
List of Tables
1 Chapter 2Table 1 Machine socialization processes in different types of algorithms
2 Chapter 3Table 2 Types of user–machine interaction (effects on users in brackets)
3 Chapter 5Table 3 Research directions for the sociology of algorithms, with selected example studi...
Guide