- Dates
- March 20–23, 2024
- Venue
- Peter Lougheed Conference Centre, Alberta School of Business
- Participants
- Approximately 25–30 scholars, from 66 invitations
- Organizers
- Vern Glaser, Deborah Anderson, Jennifer Sloan, Christine Moser, Dev Jennings
- Support
- Alberta Business Family Institute, with the University of Alberta, Scandinavian Building Services, and Oxford Saïd Business School; travel stipends for doctoral students and postdocs
Overview
This conference broadened the 2023 relaunch under the banner of algorithmic organizing. Twenty-four papers were presented in eight themed sessions over two days, with roughly thirty minutes of presentation and discussion for each paper.
The framing argued that algorithmic technologies — large language models especially — are rapidly transforming organizational life; that algorithms create and manipulate symbols and act with varying degrees of agency, from assisting to augmenting to arresting to automating; and that the field should develop theory about algorithmic organizing itself rather than only situating findings in adjacent literatures.
A shared Padlet served as a living feedback and reading list for every paper. It was the single most praised feature in the post-event survey, and the community has kept the practice.
Program
- Introduction — Algorithmic Organizing: Vern Glaser, Christine Moser, Dev Jennings; Alex Murray on non-human agency; Mohammad Jarrahi on human–AI symbiosis
- Algorithms, Data and Professional Work: Mayur Joshi, Jana Retkowsky, Rodrigo Valadao, Lisa Cohen
- Designing Algorithms and Their Routines: Meaghan Girard, Verena Timmer, Yoojin Jeong
- Algorithmic Organizing and Materiality: Lilo Meier, Joel Perez-Torrents, François Lambotte
- Complex Algorithms in Action: Joanna Li, Jeffrey Lui, Kévin Carillon
- Algorithms and Authority: Bryan Spencer, Deborah Anderson, Simon Altmejd, Sienna Parker
- Algorithmic Technologies and the Future: Jennifer Sloan, Moritz Kleinaltenkamp, Jessica Santana, Brandon Lepine
- Closing panel — The Future of Algorithmic Organizing: Michael Lounsbury, Tina Dacin, Alex Murray
Participants
An optional final morning was given over to discussions with the editors of the Research in the Sociology of Organizations volume.