'A Public Sociology of Platforms, Algorithms, and AI' with Karen Gregory

A Public Sociology of Platforms, Algorithms, and AI (a joint Technology and Digital Societies Research Group (SPAIS)/CenSoF/BDFI event)

On-demand, platform-mediated “gig” work is shaped by algorithmic systems that are proprietary and opaque, and workers around the world have called for these systems to be made more fair, transparent, and accountable. While platforms themselves have been slow to respond, worker-centred projects have pushed forward new strategies and practices for understanding the organisation of platform labour, as well as for resisting data-managed exploitation.

This talk explores several sociological projects whose methodological and theoretical approaches place work, labour, and exploitation at the heart of understanding the social effects of new technology, including Turkopticon, Fair Work, the Workers Observatory, and Worker Info Exchange. Through a deliberate mix of ethnographic methods, participatory methods, and social data science, I argue that these projects forge a type of “public sociology” (Burawoy 2021) that starts “in the world” as it is experienced by workers; draws together and creates dialogue among new audiences, including regulators and policymakers; and explicitly advocates for political change.

As such, these projects move in and out of the university, illustrating the power of sociological methods but also posing, as Burawoy suggests, two vital questions: “knowledge for whom?” and “knowledge for what?” While these research projects seek to extend the realm of knowledge production to workers, for their own use, this talk ends by reflecting on Burawoy’s four categories of sociology—public, critical, professional, and policy—and invites social scientists to consider where their own methodologies sit within this typology of cooperation and solidarity, particularly during this time of ongoing crisis.

Bio:

Karen Gregory is a digital sociologist and ethnographer. Her work explores the nature and experience of self-employment in the digital economy with a focus on platform labour, risk, and precarity. She is the founder of the MSc in Digital Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also the Lead for the Digital/Data Research Theme in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and co-lead of the Critical Data Studies Research Cluster at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. She is co-editor of the book Digital Sociologies (Policy Press 2016) and a member of the editorial board at the Journal of Cultural Economy and Platforms and Society.

This is a hybrid lecture where you can join in-person or online. Please reserve your ticket for either option.