Society and Algorithms

This paper presentation session proposes to discuss the sociological conceptualization and empirical study of algorithms. Viewed against this backdrop, algorithms can be approached as non-human agents, exerting rudimentary forms of intentional, if not meaningful, behaviour, as communicative persons, maintaining the reproduction of social systems, as sense-making devices for humanity to better understand what it means to be human. Sociological research can help understand and explain how society, more broadly, changes, because of the increasing use of algorithms for societal processes as well as the increasing participation of algorithms in society. The session is open to any submission of conceptual, methodological, and empirical nature that addresses the interplay, if not interweaving, of societal structures and algorithms in contemporary society. This includes the interplay between algorithms and work, labour, authority, hegemony, law, justice, intimacy, and much more.