{"title":"The Moral Affordances of Construing People as Cases: How Algorithms and the Data They Depend on Obscure Narrative and Noncomparative Justice","authors":"Barbara Kiviat","doi":"10.1177/07352751231186797","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Like many modes of rationalized governance, algorithms depend on rendering people as cases: discrete entities defined by regularized, atemporal attributes. This enables the computation behind the behavioral predictions organizations increasingly use to allocate benefits and burdens. Yet it elides another foundational way of understanding people: as actors in the unfolding narratives of their lives. This has epistemic implications because each cultural form entails a distinct information infrastructure. In this article, I argue that construing people as cases carries consequences for moral reasoning as well because different moral standards require different information. While rendering people as cases affords adjudications of comparative justice, parsing noncomparative justice often necessitates narrative. This explains why people frequently reach for stories that sit beyond the representations of individuals found in records and databases. With this argument, I contribute to the sociology of categorization/classification and draw broader conclusions about modern systems of bureaucratic, computational, and quantitative governance.","PeriodicalId":48131,"journal":{"name":"Sociological Theory","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Sociological Theory","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07352751231186797","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Like many modes of rationalized governance, algorithms depend on rendering people as cases: discrete entities defined by regularized, atemporal attributes. This enables the computation behind the behavioral predictions organizations increasingly use to allocate benefits and burdens. Yet it elides another foundational way of understanding people: as actors in the unfolding narratives of their lives. This has epistemic implications because each cultural form entails a distinct information infrastructure. In this article, I argue that construing people as cases carries consequences for moral reasoning as well because different moral standards require different information. While rendering people as cases affords adjudications of comparative justice, parsing noncomparative justice often necessitates narrative. This explains why people frequently reach for stories that sit beyond the representations of individuals found in records and databases. With this argument, I contribute to the sociology of categorization/classification and draw broader conclusions about modern systems of bureaucratic, computational, and quantitative governance.
期刊介绍:
Published for the American Sociological Association, this important journal covers the full range of sociological theory - from ethnomethodology to world systems analysis, from commentaries on the classics to the latest cutting-edge ideas, and from re-examinations of neglected theorists to metatheoretical inquiries. Its themes and contributions are interdisciplinary, its orientation pluralistic, its pages open to commentary and debate. Renowned for publishing the best international research and scholarship, Sociological Theory is essential reading for sociologists and social theorists alike.