Algorithmic Cultures: Essays on Meaning, Performance and New Technologies

This book provides in-depth and wide-ranging analyses of the emergence, and subsequent ubiquity, of algorithms in diverse realms of social life. The plurality of Algorithmic Cultures emphasizes: 1) algorithms’ increasing importance in the formation of new epistemic and organizational paradigms; and 2) the multifaceted analyses of algorithms across an increasing number of research fields. The authors in this volume address the complex interrelations between social groups and algorithms in the construction of meaning and social interaction. The contributors highlight the performative dimensions of algorithms by exposing the dynamic processes through which algorithms – themselves the product of a specific approach to the world – frame reality, while at the same time organizing how people think about society. With contributions from leading experts from Media Studies, Social Studies of Science and Technology, Cultural and Media Sociology from Canada, France, Germany, UK and the USA, this volume presents cutting edge empirical and conceptual research that includes case studies on social media platforms, gaming, financial trading and mobile security infrastructures.

Robert Seyfert is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence "Cultural Foundations of Social Integration" at Universität Konstanz, Germany, and Visiting Full Professor of Comparative Cultural Sociology at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. He recently published in Theory, Culture & Society and European Journal of Social Theory.

Jonathan Roberge is Assistant Professor of Cultural and Urban Sociology at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Quebec; he holds the Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture, in addition to being a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.