Suchergebnisse

Can an algorithm be democratic? And how can we understand algorithms not only as technical, but also as social and political phenomena? Democratic Algorithms offers theoretically and empirically informed perspectives on how we can imagine and design algorithms for a democratic society, and what we even mean by that. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the book illustrates how a recommender system was built in a public broadcaster, raising questions not only about organizational and technical implementation, but also about the possible compatibility of such an algorithmic system with democratic constitutions.

Simon Egbert & Matthias Leese: Criminal Futures. Predictive Policing and Everyday Police Work (Routledge, 2021), 231 Seiten. Eine Rezension / a review von Nikolaus Poechhacker. Egbert & Leese (2021) liefern mit ihrer umfassenden Studie über Predictive Policing einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Diskussion über die fortschreitende Digitalisierung und Algorithmisierung der Polizeiarbeit. Ziel des Buches ist es, Predictive Policing als eine Reihe zusammenhängender sozio-technischer Praktiken zu verstehen. Die Autoren diskutieren umfangreiches empirisches Material im Kontext der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie (ANT) und versuchen, Erkenntnisse aus der (kritischen) Kriminologie, der Soziologie und den Wissenschafts- und Technologiestudien (STS) miteinander zu verbinden. Während des gesamten Buches folgen die Autoren dem Fluss der Daten und den verschiedenen Akteuren durch den Prozess der Entwicklung und Durchführung von Predictive Policing. Durch eine konsequente Darstellung der unterschiedlichen Übersetzungsschritte stellen die Autoren klar dar, wie prädiktive Polizeiarbeit die Praxis der Polizeiarbeit verändert. Insbesondere der vorgeschlagene STS-Ansatz ist sehr überzeugend und fügt dem Feld eine neue und wichtige Perspektive hinzu.

With their extensive study on predictive policing, Egbert & Leese (2021) offer an important contribution to the discussion on the ongoing digitization and algorithmization of police work. The aim of the book is to understand predictive policing as a set of related socio-technical practices. The authors discuss rich empirical material in the context of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), trying to connect insights from (critical) criminology, sociology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Throughout the book, the authors follow data traces and different actors through the process of making and doing predictive policing. By digging deep into the different layers of translation, the authors clearly narrate how predictive policing changes the practices of policing and vice versa. Especially the STS approach proposed is very convincing, adding a novel and important perspective to the field.

Sensing In/Security is a book project that investigates how sensors and sensing practices enact regimes of security and insecurity. It extends long standing concerns with infrastructuring and emergent modes of surveillance and securitization by investigating how digitally networked sensors shape practices of securitization. Contributions in this volume engage with the ways in which sensing devices gain political and epistemic relevance in various forms of security, from border security and migration control to drone regulation, epidemiological tracking, aerial surveillance and hacking practices. Using infrastructure and infrastructuring as a conceptual lens, these studies explore the conditions of possibility of sensing threats and in/security, rendering multiple worlds tangible and (sometimes even more importantly) intangible. Instead of solely focusing on the specific sensory devices and their consequences, this collection engages with the emergence of sensor infrastructures and networks and the shaping of such 'macro entities' as international organizations, states and the European Union. ; Full book (open access) will be published by Mattering Press (2021)