Global Experiences of Risk and Agency In Algorithmic Governance

Dominant debates on algorithmic governance have predominantly focused on Global North experiences and remained largely speculative about algorithmic systems’ capacities to predict and manage risks. Critical approaches are sometimes overshadowed by deterministic and techno-dystopian narratives, obscuring the everyday realities of algorithmic governance. To counter this, this panel foregrounds the varied experiences of algorithmic governance worldwide, asking how risk and agency manifest within these systems, by drawing on research on gig work, predictive policing, welfare algorithms, social media content moderation, and so on. In times of rapid and turbulent transformations through algorithmic infrastructures this panel unpacks how we may make sense of new manifestations of risk and agency.

We invite papers on two interlinked sub-themes.

1. Risk: Reading through theorisations of risk, algorithmic systems of governance are prediction mechanisms, posited as ‘solutions’ to the perils of risk society (crime, epidemics, unemployment, financial crisis, hunger) rendering risk calculable and governable. In this context, we ask, what kind of control does algorithmic governance enable? What distinctive forms of control and regulation emerge through automation, while being framed in a liberal state logic?
2. Agency: Algorithms are not hegemonic systems that strip individuals of agency. Emerging scholarship documents how people assist or resist algorithmic imposition. Drawing on feminist and postcolonial scholarship, we ask, how does algorithmic agency manifest? What are the scales of agency, and how do individual and collective agency tackle algorithmic oppression?

The panel invites empirical and theoretical papers examining the interlinkages of risk, agency and algorithmic governance in different global settings.