[Air-L] algorithms as infrastructures/archives

[Mar Hicks]

Hi Loup,

Along the lines of "old infrastructures of the state," you might be interested in my recent article on transphobic algorithmic bias in the mainframe era, as well as the other articles in this recent 2-part special issue on the history of computing in governance:
"Hacking the Cis-tem" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 41 Issue 1, Jan.-March-2019

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8634814
Abstract

This article looks at the case of transgender Britons who tried to correct the gender listed on their government-issued ID cards, but ran up against the British government's increasingly computerized methods for tracking, identifying, and defining citizens. These newly-computerizing systems show some of the earliest examples of transphobic algorithmic bias: explicit attempts to program trans people out of the system can be seen in the programming of the early Ministry of Pensions computer system designed to apportion benefits to all taxpaying British citizens. Transgender citizens pushed back against these developments, attempting to hack the bureaucratic avenues and categories available to them, laying the groundwork for a coalescing political movement. This article argues that uncovering the deep prehistory of algorithmic bias, and investigating instances of resistance within this history, is essential to understanding current debates about algorithmic bias--and how computerized systems have long functioned to create and enforce norms and hierarchies.

Best,
Mar
______________________
Mar Hicks
Associate Professor
History of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL USA
mhicks1 at iit.edu | marhicks.com | @histoftech
Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing
www.programmedinequality.com

On May 27, 2019, at 1:49 PM, Dr. S.A. Applin <sally at sally.com> wrote:

Hi,

PolySocial Reality (PoSR) is a conceptual model that encompasses messaging and communications—including algorithms.

You might find something at posr.org

and at posr.org/wiki/publications

-Sally



Sally Applin, Ph.D.
..........
Research Fellow
HRAF Advanced Research Centres (EU), Canterbury
Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing (CSAC)
..........
Research Associate
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)
Yale University
..........
Associate Editor, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
Member, IoT Council
Executive Board Member: The Edward H. and Rosamond B. Spicer Foundation
..........
http://www.posr.org
http://www.sally.com
I am based in Silicon Valley
..........
sally at sally.com | 650.339.5236





______________________
Mar[ie] Hicks
mariehicks.net | @histoftech

Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing
www.programmedinequality.com

> On May 27, 2019, at 8:20 AM, Loup Cellard <loupcellard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> Anyone can recommend readings helping in conceptualising algorithms as
> "old" infrastructures or "living" archives.
> 
> I am studying more particularly large-scale decision-making systems that
> relies on "old" infrastructures of the state.
> Ex: algorithms used to calculate taxes, the work mobility of civil
> servants, allocation of students into schools, etc.
> 
> I am interested about two things :
> 
>  - while algorithms are sometimes defined as innovative and somehow "new"
>  they actually relies on "old" infrastructures. (the temporality of
>  infrastructures)
>  - the infrastructural capacity of the state and the way it maintain an
>  opacity on these systems. (the attractiveness and dangers of algorithmic
>  transparency)
> 
> 
> Any recommendation from infrastructure studies ? critical algorithm studies
> ? sociology/anthropology of the state and civil services ?
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Loup
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> *Loup Cellard*PhD Student - Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
> <http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/>, Warwick University,
> Coventry, UK.
> <http://www.loupcellard.com>Email : loupcellard at gmail.com
> Mobile : +33 7 87 00 84 22
> Site Web : loupcellard.com <http://www.loupcellard.com/>
> Twitter : @CellardLoup <https://twitter.com/CellardLoup>
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