id
	16754
Url
	https://chloe.cnr.it/s/BiDiAr/item/16754
Resource template
	Academic Article
Resource class
	bibo:AcademicArticle
Title
	The ethnographer and the algorithm: beyond the black box
Creator
	Christin, Angèle
Date
	2020
Language
	eng
Abstract
	A common theme in social science studies of algorithms is that they are profoundly opaque and function as “black boxes.” Scholars have developed several methodological approaches in order to address algorithmic opacity. Here I argue that we can explicitly enroll algorithms in ethnographic research, which can shed light on unexpected aspects of algorithmic systems—including their opacity. I delineate three meso-level strategies for algorithmic ethnography. The first, algorithmic refraction, examines the reconfigurations that take place when computational software, people, and institutions interact. The second strategy, algorithmic comparison, relies on a similarity-and-difference approach to identify the instruments’ unique features. The third strategy, algorithmic triangulation, enrolls algorithms to help gather rich qualitative data. I conclude by discussing the implications of this toolkit for the study of algorithms and future of ethnographic fieldwork.
Is Part Of
	Theory and Society
Doi
	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09411-3
Issn
	1573-7853
Issue
	5
Pages
	897-918
Short title
	The ethnographer and the algorithm
Volume
	49
Homepage
	https://www.zotero.org/groups/5293298/bidiar/items/MZ5H596Pitem-list

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