Ethnography of algorithms: The cultural analysis of a sociotechnical construct

The idea to dedicate a Special Issue to the ethnography of algorithms follows from the need to unfold the potential of ethnography in studying how algorithms are imbued with culture, and to collect some empirical examples of the possible ways this connection may be retraced. On the one side, algorithms can be conceived as cultural objects because are laden of beliefs, values, visions, and the background knowledge of their designers; on the other side, algorithms can be regarded as cultural objects because they are also part of users’ daily practices. The different ways of entangling algorithms and culture may require different research strategies that we could name “ethnography of algorithms in the making» and «ethnography of algorithms in use». They are not properly two distinctive research strategies, but they may be seen as two end points of the same continuum, where various intermediate forms of ethnography may be placed.