The Society of Algorithms | Annual Review of Sociology

Vol. 47:213-237 (Volume publication date July 2021) First published as a Review in Advance on May 27, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090820-020800 Jenna Burrell and Marion Fourcade School of Information and Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; email: jburrell@berkeley.edu, fourcade@berkeley.edu The pairing of massive data sets with processes—or algorithms—written in computer code to sort through, organize, extract, or mine them has made inroads in almost every major social institution. This article proposes a reading of the scholarly literature concerned with the social implications of this transformation. First, we discuss the rise of a new occupational class, which we call the coding elite. This group has consolidated power through their technical control over the digital means of production and by extracting labor from a newly marginalized or unpaid workforce, the cybertariat. Second, we show that the implementation of techniq

Vol. 47:213-237 (Volume publication date July 2021) First published as a Review in Advance on May 27, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090820-020800 Jenna Burrell and Marion Fourcade School of Information and Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA; email: jburrell@berkeley.edu, fourcade@berkeley.edu The pairing of massive data sets with processes—or algorithms—written in computer code to sort through, organize, extract, or mine them has made inroads in almost every major social institution. This article proposes a reading of the scholarly lit