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Machine habitus: towards a sociology of algorithms

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Polity Press 2022 UKDescription: ix, 181p. Includes index and referencesISBN:
  • 9781509543281
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 303.4834 A4M2
Summary: We commonly think of society as made of and by humans, but with the proliferation of machine learning and AI technologies, this is clearly no longer the case. Billions of automated systems tacitly contribute to the social construction of reality by drawing algorithmic distinctions between the visible and the invisible, the relevant and the irrelevant, the likely and the unlikely – on and beyond platforms. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this book develops an original sociology of algorithms as social agents, actively participating in social life. Through a wide range of examples, Massimo Airoldi shows how society shapes algorithmic code, and how this culture in the code guides the practical behaviour of the code in the culture, shaping society in turn. The ‘machine habitus’ is the generative mechanism at work throughout myriads of feedback loops linking humans with artificial social agents, in the context of digital infrastructures and pre-digital social structures.Machine Habitus will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, media and cultural studies, science and technology studies and information technology, and to anyone interested in the growing role of algorithms and AI in our social and cultural life https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=machine-habitus-toward-a-sociology-of-algorithms--9781509543274
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Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 8-B / Slot 334 (0 Floor, West Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 303.4834 A4M2 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 22/08/2025 204788

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

1. Why not a sociology of algorithms?

2. Culture in the code

3. Code in the culture

4. A Theory of Machine Habitus

5. Techno-Social Reproduction

References

We commonly think of society as made of and by humans, but with the proliferation of machine learning and AI technologies, this is clearly no longer the case. Billions of automated systems tacitly contribute to the social construction of reality by drawing algorithmic distinctions between the visible and the invisible, the relevant and the irrelevant, the likely and the unlikely – on and beyond platforms.

Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this book develops an original sociology of algorithms as social agents, actively participating in social life. Through a wide range of examples, Massimo Airoldi shows how society shapes algorithmic code, and how this culture in the code guides the practical behaviour of the code in the culture, shaping society in turn. The ‘machine habitus’ is the generative mechanism at work throughout myriads of feedback loops linking humans with artificial social agents, in the context of digital infrastructures and pre-digital social structures.Machine Habitus will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, media and cultural studies, science and technology studies and information technology, and to anyone interested in the growing role of algorithms and AI in our social and cultural life

https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=machine-habitus-toward-a-sociology-of-algorithms--9781509543274

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