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The ethnographer and the algorithm: beyond the black box
Theory and Society ( IF 3.226 ) Pub Date : 2020-08-15 , DOI: 10.1007/s11186-020-09411-3
Angèle Christin

A common theme in social science studies of algorithms is that they are profoundly opaque and function as “black boxes.” Scholars have developed several methodological approaches in order to address algorithmic opacity. Here I argue that we can explicitly enroll algorithms in ethnographic research, which can shed light on unexpected aspects of algorithmic systems—including their opacity. I delineate three meso-level strategies for algorithmic ethnography. The first, algorithmic refraction, examines the reconfigurations that take place when computational software, people, and institutions interact. The second strategy, algorithmic comparison, relies on a similarity-and-difference approach to identify the instruments’ unique features. The third strategy, algorithmic triangulation, enrolls algorithms to help gather rich qualitative data. I conclude by discussing the implications of this toolkit for the study of algorithms and future of ethnographic fieldwork.

中文翻译:

民族志学家和算法:超越黑匣子

算法社会科学研究的一个共同主题是它们非常不透明,并且起到“黑匣子”的作用。学者们已经开发了几种方法论方法来解决算法不透明问题。在这里,我认为我们可以明确地将算法纳入人种学研究,这可以揭示算法系统的意想不到的方面——包括它们的不透明性。我描述了算法民族志的三个中观层次策略。第一个是算法折射,研究计算软件、人和机构交互时发生的重新配置。第二种策略,算法比较,依赖于相似性和差异性方法来识别工具的独特特征。第三种策略,算法三角测量,使用算法来帮助收集丰富的定性数据。
更新日期:2020-08-15
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