[Air-L] Book Announcement: Burden of Choice, Recommendations, Subversion and Algorithmic Culture

[Jonathan Cohn]

Greetings,

I thought some of you fine people might be interested in my brand new book,  The Burden of Choice: Recommendations, Subversion and Algorithmic Culture <https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-burden-of-choice/9780813597812>.  Use code: 02AAAA17 for 30% off.

From Rutgers UP: The Burden of Choice examines how recommendations for products, media, news, romantic partners, and even cosmetic surgery operations are produced and experienced online. Fundamentally concerned with how the recommendation has come to serve as a form of control that frames a contemporary American as heteronormative, white, and well off, this book asserts that the industries that use these automated recommendations tend to ignore and obscure all other identities in the service of making the type of affluence they are selling appear commonplace. Focusing on the period from the mid-1990s to approximately 2010 (while this technology was still novel), Jonathan Cohn argues that automated recommendations and algorithms are far from natural, neutral, or benevolent. Instead, they shape and are shaped by changing conceptions of gender, sexuality, race, and class. In the process, this book considers not only how we now define our choices and perform choosing online, but also how we constantly contest and subvert the choices that algorithms present us.  With its cultural studies and humanities-driven methodologies focused on close readings, historical research, and qualitative analysis, The Burden of Choice models a promising avenue for the study of algorithms and culture.

And here are some reviews:

"Suffused with nuance and aplomb, Jonathan Cohn’s The Burden of Choice details the asymmetries of power and disputed logics of contemporary algorithmic culture—an outstanding contribution to digital studies."

--John Cheney-Lippold, author of We Are Data: Algorithms and The Making of Our Digital Selves

"Algorithmic recommendations aren’t politically neutral. But, as Cohn details in this illuminating book, nor is their power absolute. The Burden of Choice is a primer on algorithmic dissidence, couched in a history of computational decision making."

--Ted Striphas, author of The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control

“Fascinating and timely, this exciting book explores the history of algorithms, recommendations, and suggestions.”

--Chuck Tryon, author of On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies



Best,

Jonathan Cohn
Assistant Professor, Digital Culture
English and Film Studies
University of Alberta
ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan), Treaty 6/Métis Territory

New Book: The Burden of Choice: Recommendations, Subversion, and Algorithmic Culture <https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-burden-of-choice/9780813597812>

(Via Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/Burden-Choice-Recommendations-Subversion-Algorithmic/dp/0813597811/> or Powell <https://www.powells.com/book/-9780813597812>)