Session 4 of the CEPEL young researchers seminar - February 9, 2024
As part of CEPEL's "Actualité de la Recherche en Sciences Sociale" seminar we are pleased to invite you to the fourth seminar of the 2023-2024 year:
Visit February 9, from 2pm to 4pm in the Linz room in Building 3 of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Montpellier, where we will welcome :
Anaïs Theviot, Maîtresse de Conférences at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest (distance learning), and Guillaume Marrel, Professeur des Universités at the Université d'Avignon, for the presentation of their contributions to the collective work :
Governing through data? Pour une sociologie politique du numérique, coordinated by Anaïs Theviot and published in 2023 by Editions de l'ENS.
The session will be discussed by Jean-Yves Dormagen, University Professor, University of Montpellier, and Tiffany Matias, Doctor of Political Science.
Summary:
This book is an invitation to enter the black box of algorithms, not from a technical point of view, but from that of political sociology. Does the proliferation of data available online, coupled with advances in artificial intelligence, affect the way we govern? Can algorithms "predict" citizens' behavior? How are these so-called predictive algorithms produced, and by whom? Are they neutral and objective? What are the social, ethical and political issues involved in using data? And what commercial and marketing strategies are at work? Can we still protect our data?
Behind the use of data, there are many visions of the world. We need to think of the algorithm as a political and social object, produced by actors and resulting from private and now also public orders. These lines of code and complex calculations cannot be dissociated from their conditions of production: they are embedded in a specific organizational and professional set-up, and driven by political intentions and will.
Through a series of case studies and the contribution of in-depth, unpublished empirical surveys, this volume provides a contextual understanding of how our data is used, and the possible influences on modes of governance and decision-making. The strength of this work, at the crossroads of economic sociology, law, political science and computer science, is that it lays the foundations for a political sociology of data and the digital age, aimed at overcoming and deconstructing the myths and beliefs conveyed by Big Data.
