Abstract
Questions about how algorithms contribute to (in)security are under discussion across international political sociology. Building upon and adding to these debates, our collective discussion foregrounds questions about algorithmic violence. We argue that it is important to examine how algorithmic systems feed (into) specific forms of violence, and how they justify violent actions or redefine what forms of violence are deemed legitimate. Bringing together different disciplinary and conceptual vantage points, this collective discussion opens a conversation about algorithmic violence focusing both on its specific instances and on the challenges that arise in conceptualizing and studying it. Overall, the discussion converges on three areas of concern—the violence undergirding the creation and feeding of data infrastructures; the translation processes at play in the use of computer/machine vision across diverse security practices; and the institutional governing of algorithmic violence, especially its organization, limitation, and legitimation.
affordences, algorithmic violence, Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, frontpage, governance, harm, interdisciplinary, machine learning
Bibtex
Article{Bellanova2021,
title = {Toward a Critique of Algorithmic Violence},
author = {Bellanova, R. and Irion, K. and Lindskov Jacobsen, K. and Ragazzi, F. and Saugmann, R. and Suchman, L.},
doi = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olab003},
year = {0329},
date = {2021-03-29},
journal = {International Political Sociology},
volume = {15},
number = {1},
pages = {121–150},
abstract = {Questions about how algorithms contribute to (in)security are under discussion across international political sociology. Building upon and adding to these debates, our collective discussion foregrounds questions about algorithmic violence. We argue that it is important to examine how algorithmic systems feed (into) specific forms of violence, and how they justify violent actions or redefine what forms of violence are deemed legitimate. Bringing together different disciplinary and conceptual vantage points, this collective discussion opens a conversation about algorithmic violence focusing both on its specific instances and on the challenges that arise in conceptualizing and studying it. Overall, the discussion converges on three areas of concern—the violence undergirding the creation and feeding of data infrastructures; the translation processes at play in the use of computer/machine vision across diverse security practices; and the institutional governing of algorithmic violence, especially its organization, limitation, and legitimation.},
keywords = {affordences, algorithmic violence, Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, frontpage, governance, harm, interdisciplinary, machine learning},
}