IDeaS 2023 · Edmonton
Ethnographic Studies of Data, Algorithms, and Decision-Making
- Dates
- March 13–15, 2023
- Venue
- Lister Centre, University of Alberta
- Participants
- 18 scholars from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong
- Organizers
- Deborah Anderson, Jennifer Sloan, Vern Glaser
- Support
- Alberta Business Family Institute, as part of the Terry Hay Legacy Series
Overview
The first IDeaS event after the COVID hiatus, and the pivot from the 2019 computational-and-interpretive mix to a focused agenda on the ethnography of algorithms. It was a three-day intensive workshop for doctoral students and faculty conducting ethnographic studies of how data science and algorithms shape decision-making in organizations.
Papers examined algorithmic decision-making in the Dutch childcare-benefits scandal, AI implementation in radiology, organizing on digital platforms, regulatory technology, and algorithmic routines in Network Rail's suicide-prevention program. Each paper received extended discussion, with senior scholars serving as discussants.
This event established the small, developmental format — junior–senior pairings, thirty minutes or more per paper, and sessions on research craft — that the community has used ever since.
Program
- In-depth paper discussions — two papers per ninety-minute session, each with a senior discussant (Dev Jennings, Michael Lounsbury, Vern Glaser)
- Early Career Paper Deep Dives — rotating forty-five-minute sessions pairing one junior scholar with two senior scholars
- The Craft of Ethnography — breakout sessions on qualitative method in the same rotating format
- Panel — A Topography of Ethnographic Approaches: Dev Jennings and Vern Glaser
- Panel — Using Ethnographic Methods to Unpack the Dynamics of Data, Algorithms, and Decision-Making: Kathrin Sele and Vern Glaser
Papers presented
- Christine Moser (VU Amsterdam)
Processes and Consequences of Algorithmic Decision-Making in Dutch Childcare - Jessica Santana (UC Santa Barbara)
Semantic Network Analysis to Measure the Codification of Professional Ethics - Omid Omidvar (Warwick)
Organizing in Digital Platforms: Temporality, Grammar of Actions, and Algorithmic Delegation - Anne Washington (New York University)
Calculating Legitimacy: Institutional Responses to Regulatory Technology - Angela Aristidou (UCL)
Anticipatory Governance: ‘Perfect’ AI in ‘Imperfect’ Organizational Worlds - Kathrin Sele (Aalto)
A Dance of Inquiry: The Role of Surprises in Organizational Experimenting - Kevin Lee (UBC)
Augmenting or Automating? The Uncertain Promise of AI - Tracy Martin (Queensland)
Accelerating the Workforce Transition in Sustainable Infrastructure - Mehdi Safavi (Cranfield)
Suicide Prevention in an Automated World: Network Rail's Algorithmic Routines
Participants
Junior-scholar breakout work came from Deborah Anderson, Jennifer Sloan, Natalie Eng, Lena Kostuj, Verena Timmer, and Esther Chau. Papers from this conference were developed into Algorithmic Organizing (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 95).