An official website of the United States government
Abstract Computational systems, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, are not only inescapable parts of social life but are also reshaping the contours of law and legal practice. We propose turning more law and social science (LSS) attention to new technological developments through the study of “law in computation,” that is, computational systems' integration with regulatory and administrative procedures, the sociotechnical infrastructures that support them, and their impact on how individuals and populations are interpellated through the law. We present a range of cases in three areas of inquiry ‐ algorithmic governance, jurisdiction and agency ‐ on issues such as immigration enforcement, data sovereignty, algorithmic warfare, biometric identity regimes, and gig economies, for which examining law in computation illuminates how new technological systems' integration with legal processes pushes the distinction between “law on the books” and “law in action” into new domains.We then propose future directions and methods for research. As computational systems become ever more sophisticated, understanding the law in computation is critical not only for LSS scholarship, but also for everyday civics.
more »
« less
Protological Governance. Between Sovereignty and Entanglement
This paper proposes the concept of protocological governance, an account of the interplay in the enactment of protocols between sovereignty and entanglement. Protocols, understood as patterns that organize interactions among agents, are increasingly central to social and technical systems, ranging from digital networks and climate accords to Indigenous cultural practices. While protocols offer a means of sovereignty through decentralization and resistance to capture by external entities such as states or corporations, their entanglement with other systems introduces both vulnerabilities and conditions for their usefulness. The paper takes current developments in Web3 as a starting point, clarifies the distinctions between mere protocols and the protocological, and explores how protocols can assert sovereignty while being embedded in social life through a series of encounters in practice between protocols and other systems – in religious and anthropological history, Internet standards, and diplomatic agreements. Drawing on media philosophy, media anthropology, and performativity, the analysis shows how protocols can become tools for generative, relational governance through the tension between sovereignty and entanglement. The paper concludes by introducing the concept of protocological chiasm, which describes the dynamic tension between abstract patterns of protocol and their material instantiations, re-introducing the human body as a key element for resistance against capture. Protocological governance thus represents an emergent organizational form with the potential to reshape power structures.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10629519
- Publisher / Repository:
- universi – Universitätsverlag Siegen
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Navigationen
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1619-1641
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 15-40
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Protocol Web3 Sovereignty Governance Entanglement 302.23
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
In this article, we introduce the concept of a spotlight social media post —a post that receives an unexpected burst of attention—and explore how such posts reveal salient aspects of online collective sensemaking and attention dynamics during a crisis event. Specifically, we examine the online conversation surrounding a false missile alert in Hawaii in January 2018. Through a mixed-methods analysis and visualizations, our research uncovers mechanisms that lead to rapid attention gains, such as spotlighting —when a user with existing influence confers attention by sharing others’ content with their audience. We highlight how spotlight social media posts (specifically spotlight tweets ) are distinct from other heavily shared content and that they offer insight into previously overlooked patterns in information exchange. We additionally reveal that attention dynamics may alter the social position of spotlight post authors immediately afterward (and possibly in the long term). We argue that spotlight social media posts offer a productive window for understanding online collective sensemaking, and we discuss how this can inform social media platform design and serve as a basis of future research.more » « less
-
Epidemic models study the spread of undesired agents through populations, be it infectious diseases through a country, misinformation in social media or pests infesting a region. In combating these epidemics, we rely neither on global top-down interventions, nor solely on individual adaptations. Instead, interventions commonly come from local institutions such as public health departments, moderation teams on social media platforms or other forms of group governance. Classic models, which are often individual or agent-based, are ill-suited to capture local adaptations. We leverage developments of institutional dynamics based on cultural group selection to study how groups attempt local control of an epidemic by taking inspiration from the successes and failures of other groups. Incorporating institutional changes into epidemic dynamics reveals paradoxes: a higher transmission rate can result in smaller outbreaks as does decreasing the speed of institutional adaptation. When groups perceive a contagion as more worrisome, they can invest in improved policies and, if they maintain these policies long enough to have impact, lead to a reduction in endemicity. By looking at the interplay between the speed of institutions and the transmission rate of the contagions, we find rich coevolutionary dynamics that reflect the complexity of known biological and social contagions.more » « less
-
Open educational resources (OER) constitute a form of digital media that have received growing interest and adoption. Infrastructures are becoming more widely available to support OER authorship and adaptation. However, this article argues that infrastructures for the ongoing governance of OER have been lacking, despite the medium’s possibilities as “evolutionary media.” The article provides a review of existing literature on OER and their governance, in conversation with the governance of other kinds of software commons. It then offers an auto-ethnographic reflection on the authors’ experience with the challenges of OER maintenance in the context of a specific textbook on social media, and the resulting need for taking governance seriously. Finally, the article proposes strategies for improving support for OER governance through collaborative processes among their stakeholders.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT. Well-being and equity are increasingly identified as integral to environmental governance and improved sustainability outcomes. Greater consideration of these dimensions has generated calls for more data and new methodologies capable of collecting, evaluating, and converting social and cultural data into formats deemed more useful to decision makers. These efforts expose gaps and challenges related to an over reliance on quantitative data, especially when it comes to adequately accounting for the well-being of Indigenous communities. Located along the western shore of Nanvarpak (Lake Iliamna) in southwest Alaska, this paper examines Indigenous conceptions of well-being and provides insights on how to better account for the well-being of Indigenous communities in sustainable governance. Carried out in partnership with the Tribal Nation of Igyaraq (Igiugig), we draw on ethnographic and interview data to identify and examine three foundational elements of Indigenous well-being: (1) land relations or nunaka (my land, my birthplace), inclusive of one’s responsibility to ensure continuation of a way of life defined by connections to ancestral lands; (2) sovereignty; and (3) effective governance. We pay special attention to the implications of Indigenous well-being as primarily expressed and achieved through enactments of sovereignty and nation-building. We draw attention to the need for greater investment in diverse scientific expertise and data but caution against assuming that more science will lead to better governance. There is a need to acknowledge the ways in which dominant Western science-policy structures do not serve Indigenous communities. Our research suggests that you cannot adequately account for Indigenous well-being without explicit consideration of governance, and the often taken for granted value assumptions and political conditions that quietly frame policy debates and scientific understandings of what data are considered useful and what impacts are considered acceptable. This paper demonstrates the fundamental importance of centering sovereignty in not only well-being and equity considerations, but as a central tenet of ethical scientific inquiry and environmental governance more broadly.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23996
