Pub Date : 2025-08-02DOI: 10.1177/08944393251365277
Will Orr
Absences are inescapable in data. Data collection always focuses on some elements while occluding others. Yet, how absences are considered and recorded within data infrastructures markedly transforms the inferences that can be made. Tracing a genealogy from early databases to contemporary AI datasets, this paper explores how data infrastructures have grappled with the inherent incompleteness of data. Specifically, I uncover a tension between a desire for certainty and acknowledging partiality at the foundation of data science that continues to pervade contemporary AI datasets. Drawing on archival studies and sociological perspectives, I argue that data science must embrace uncertainty by recognizing the “ghosts in the data”—the uncounted, the unrepresented, and the silenced—and how their absence shapes the outcomes of automated systems.
{"title":"Ghosts in the Data: The Contested Politics of Absence in Data Infrastructures","authors":"Will Orr","doi":"10.1177/08944393251365277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251365277","url":null,"abstract":"Absences are inescapable in data. Data collection always focuses on some elements while occluding others. Yet, how absences are considered and recorded within data infrastructures markedly transforms the inferences that can be made. Tracing a genealogy from early databases to contemporary AI datasets, this paper explores how data infrastructures have grappled with the inherent incompleteness of data. Specifically, I uncover a tension between a desire for certainty and acknowledging partiality at the foundation of data science that continues to pervade contemporary AI datasets. Drawing on archival studies and sociological perspectives, I argue that data science must embrace uncertainty by recognizing the “ghosts in the data”—the uncounted, the unrepresented, and the silenced—and how their absence shapes the outcomes of automated systems.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1177/08944393251362247
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Tan Khai Ee, Ozan Kuru
Does exposure to news about out-party campaigns’ increasing use of deepfakes further increase polarization among partisans, and how does this impact vary among different evaluations of political coalitions, parties, and leaders? What role does approval for candidates’ usage of AI play as a moderator in this relationship? This paper examines these questions using data from a survey experiment ( N = 1627), in which each respondent exposed to a news story that varied in their coverage of the growing deployment of AI-powered deepfakes during the 2024 India’s national election campaigns. The findings indicate that exposure to news about out-party campaigns’ use of deepfakes did not polarize attitudes towards coalitions, parties, and leaders. In contrast, approval for candidates’ use of AI was negatively associated with polarization towards coalitions, parties, and leaders, but this did not moderate the experimental effects: respondents who approved of candidates’ AI usage and saw a news article about out-party use of deepfakes were not more polarized toward either coalitions, parties or leaders. This study not only extends the understanding of AI’s role in campaigns by examining its complex effects on affective polarization, but it also broadens empirical research into the impact of deepfakes by focusing on the non-Western context of India, thereby offering new theoretical insights into how technological advancements intersect with political behaviors and attitudes.
{"title":"Campaign Deepfakes and Affective Polarization: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Campaigns in Shaping Voter Attitudes","authors":"Taberez Ahmed Neyazi, Tan Khai Ee, Ozan Kuru","doi":"10.1177/08944393251362247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251362247","url":null,"abstract":"Does exposure to news about out-party campaigns’ increasing use of deepfakes further increase polarization among partisans, and how does this impact vary among different evaluations of political coalitions, parties, and leaders? What role does approval for candidates’ usage of AI play as a moderator in this relationship? This paper examines these questions using data from a survey experiment ( <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 1627), in which each respondent exposed to a news story that varied in their coverage of the growing deployment of AI-powered deepfakes during the 2024 India’s national election campaigns. The findings indicate that exposure to news about out-party campaigns’ use of deepfakes did not polarize attitudes towards coalitions, parties, and leaders. In contrast, approval for candidates’ use of AI was negatively associated with polarization towards coalitions, parties, and leaders, but this did not moderate the experimental effects: respondents who approved of candidates’ AI usage and saw a news article about out-party use of deepfakes were not more polarized toward either coalitions, parties or leaders. This study not only extends the understanding of AI’s role in campaigns by examining its complex effects on affective polarization, but it also broadens empirical research into the impact of deepfakes by focusing on the non-Western context of India, thereby offering new theoretical insights into how technological advancements intersect with political behaviors and attitudes.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144766084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-31DOI: 10.1177/08944393251364290
Annie Waldherr, Nicola Righetti, Ryan J. Gallagher, Kira Klinger, Daniela Stoltenberg, Sagar Kumar, Dominic Ridley, Brooke Foucault Welles
The deaths of Black victims of police brutality, such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and Philando Castile, have become focusing events and symbols for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, catalyzing wide-spread public attention to racial injustice. While prior studies on hashtag activism predominantly focus on single and widely known cases, less is understood about why some incidents draw massive public attention while others do not. Addressing this gap, our study investigates the factors influencing the likelihood and size of public attention on Twitter (now X) following extrajudicial police killings. We analyzed 1.5 million tweets in response to 795 police killings between January 1, 2015, and December 8, 2016, in the United States. By examining cases on all scales, from unnoticed to prominent, we provide large-scale empirical evidence on disparities in public attention to police killings and their victims. Results indicate two distinct processes in the emergence of focusing events: While victims’ attributes such as race, age, and gender increased likelihood of receiving any attention (thresholding), variables of context and social construction were related to overall wave size (focusing).
{"title":"Waves of Attention to Racial Injustice on Social Media: Extrajudicial Police Killings in the United States as Focusing Events","authors":"Annie Waldherr, Nicola Righetti, Ryan J. Gallagher, Kira Klinger, Daniela Stoltenberg, Sagar Kumar, Dominic Ridley, Brooke Foucault Welles","doi":"10.1177/08944393251364290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251364290","url":null,"abstract":"The deaths of Black victims of police brutality, such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland, and Philando Castile, have become focusing events and symbols for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, catalyzing wide-spread public attention to racial injustice. While prior studies on hashtag activism predominantly focus on single and widely known cases, less is understood about why some incidents draw massive public attention while others do not. Addressing this gap, our study investigates the factors influencing the likelihood and size of public attention on Twitter (now X) following extrajudicial police killings. We analyzed 1.5 million tweets in response to 795 police killings between January 1, 2015, and December 8, 2016, in the United States. By examining cases on all scales, from unnoticed to prominent, we provide large-scale empirical evidence on disparities in public attention to police killings and their victims. Results indicate two distinct processes in the emergence of focusing events: While victims’ attributes such as race, age, and gender increased likelihood of receiving any attention (thresholding), variables of context and social construction were related to overall wave size (focusing).","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144748158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-30DOI: 10.1177/08944393251364293
Rafael C. Alvarado
This essay introduces and develops the concept of imitative intelligence implied by Turing’s foundational work on machine intelligence and connects it to the current generation AI agents based on large language models. Based on a close reading of Turing’s writings on machine intelligence, from the 1938 paper on the entscheidungsproblem to the 1950 paper on the imitation game, the Turing test is found to be more than an operational convenience; it reflects an implicit theory of the imitative and social nature of intelligence that informs his entire project of intelligent machine design. Moreover, the proported shortcomings of the Turing test—its reliance on language and emphasis on culture—turn out to be foundational to the success of LLM-based AI agents today. It is suggested that the design and regulation these agents is usefully framed by the perspective of the concept of imitative intelligence is inherited by them.
{"title":"Turing’s Children: Large Language Models and Imitative Intelligence","authors":"Rafael C. Alvarado","doi":"10.1177/08944393251364293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251364293","url":null,"abstract":"This essay introduces and develops the concept of imitative intelligence implied by Turing’s foundational work on machine intelligence and connects it to the current generation AI agents based on large language models. Based on a close reading of Turing’s writings on machine intelligence, from the 1938 paper on the <jats:italic>entscheidungsproblem</jats:italic> to the 1950 paper on the imitation game, the Turing test is found to be more than an operational convenience; it reflects an implicit theory of the imitative and social nature of intelligence that informs his entire project of intelligent machine design. Moreover, the proported shortcomings of the Turing test—its reliance on language and emphasis on culture—turn out to be foundational to the success of LLM-based AI agents today. It is suggested that the design and regulation these agents is usefully framed by the perspective of the concept of imitative intelligence is inherited by them.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144748160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-28DOI: 10.1177/08944393251361457
Maxime Harvey
This article examines the mediating role of social scientists in the cultural integration and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), with a particular focus on the creative industries. Drawing on an ethnographic case study within a film cooperative, it identifies four modalities through which social scientists become enrolled in AI-related organizational processes: as middlemen linking theory and practice, as distributors facilitating the flow of agency, as coordinators bridging innovation and appropriation, and as hosts observing the reproduction of technical skills. Situated at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Media Studies, the article rethinks mediation not as passive translation, but as an active montage of fragmented meanings, practices, and actors. It argues that AI is not merely an object of study but a distributed assemblage whose significance emerges through situated associations. By articulating how social scientists engage with AI through organizational consultation, cultural programming, and collaborative experimentation, this paper reframes the sociology of AI as a field of strategic, reflexive, and creative intervention. In doing so, it highlights the importance of problematizing mediation as a relational practice that connects cultural actors, technologies, and institutions in the evolving ordering of artificial intelligence.
{"title":"Artificial Intelligence and the Social Scientist: The Mediation of AIfied Creative Sites","authors":"Maxime Harvey","doi":"10.1177/08944393251361457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251361457","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the mediating role of social scientists in the cultural integration and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), with a particular focus on the creative industries. Drawing on an ethnographic case study within a film cooperative, it identifies four modalities through which social scientists become enrolled in AI-related organizational processes: as middlemen linking theory and practice, as distributors facilitating the flow of agency, as coordinators bridging innovation and appropriation, and as hosts observing the reproduction of technical skills. Situated at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Media Studies, the article rethinks mediation not as passive translation, but as an active montage of fragmented meanings, practices, and actors. It argues that AI is not merely an object of study but a distributed assemblage whose significance emerges through situated associations. By articulating how social scientists engage with AI through organizational consultation, cultural programming, and collaborative experimentation, this paper reframes the sociology of AI as a field of strategic, reflexive, and creative intervention. In doing so, it highlights the importance of problematizing mediation as a relational practice that connects cultural actors, technologies, and institutions in the evolving ordering of artificial intelligence.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"91 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144715262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Public funding plays a pivotal yet often overlooked role in shaping AI development, especially in Latin America. Drawing on sociological theories of performativity, we analyze 205 AI projects funded by Chile’s key public agencies, related to research, entrepreneurship, and creation, over the past decade. Through content analysis combined with a qualitative, heuristic procedure, we characterize five dominant narratives across state-funded AI projects, seeking to interpret the social meanings embedded within their descriptions considering their situated context. This method informs the articulation of five narratives: AI for productivity gains, as a transformative force, as a literacy need, for smart surveillance, and as situated and creative inquiry. Our findings reveal that AI for productivity gains has strongly dominated over the last decade. We argue that this narrative functions as a strategic mechanism for aligning legacy institutional interests with those of the actors seeking funding. By framing public funding as performative, this paper contributes to debates on how state-led narratives help shape technological development’s trajectory. It also emphasizes the interconnectedness of actors, political economy, and socio-technical dynamics concerning AI’s future.
{"title":"Performing Productivity: Exploring the Narratives of State-Funded AI Projects Over a Decade in Chile","authors":"Claudia López, Francisca Luco, Mónica Humeres, Teresa Correa","doi":"10.1177/08944393251361444","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251361444","url":null,"abstract":"Public funding plays a pivotal yet often overlooked role in shaping AI development, especially in Latin America. Drawing on sociological theories of performativity, we analyze 205 AI projects funded by Chile’s key public agencies, related to research, entrepreneurship, and creation, over the past decade. Through content analysis combined with a qualitative, heuristic procedure, we characterize five dominant narratives across state-funded AI projects, seeking to interpret the social meanings embedded within their descriptions considering their situated context. This method informs the articulation of five narratives: AI for productivity gains, as a transformative force, as a literacy need, for smart surveillance, and as situated and creative inquiry. Our findings reveal that AI for productivity gains has strongly dominated over the last decade. We argue that this narrative functions as a strategic mechanism for aligning legacy institutional interests with those of the actors seeking funding. By framing public funding as performative, this paper contributes to debates on how state-led narratives help shape technological development’s trajectory. It also emphasizes the interconnectedness of actors, political economy, and socio-technical dynamics concerning AI’s future.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144712163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-19DOI: 10.1177/08944393251361935
Jason Bohner, Janet Vertesi
Drawing on interviews with 37 entrepreneurs, engineers, technologists and investors in the New York City tech scene involved in AI, we investigate the social formations that characterize “AI-hype” from the perspective of micro-level economic sociology. We observe how actors in New York draw symbolic boundaries between their own work and that of “hype-beasts” in San Francisco, despite drawing upon and profiting from the same sociotechnical imaginaries about AI’s transformative potential. We show how this symbolic boundary work serves to legitimate the local ecosystem, to provide moral valuations for the exchange of capital, to ground different temporalities that inspire urgency in their work, and to enact spatial boundaries amid competing sociotechnical imaginaries. We demonstrate how these contestations contribute to the construction of powerful relevant social groups and their respective technological systems. We thus use the case of AI to take steps toward developing a sociology of hype, drawing on literature in the sociology of technology, boundary work in the professions, and economic sociology.
{"title":"Towards a Socioeconomics of Hype: Hype Dynamics and Symbolic Boundary Work Within the Speculative AI Bubble","authors":"Jason Bohner, Janet Vertesi","doi":"10.1177/08944393251361935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251361935","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on interviews with 37 entrepreneurs, engineers, technologists and investors in the New York City tech scene involved in AI, we investigate the social formations that characterize “AI-hype” from the perspective of micro-level economic sociology. We observe how actors in New York draw symbolic boundaries between their own work and that of “hype-beasts” in San Francisco, despite drawing upon and profiting from the same sociotechnical imaginaries about AI’s transformative potential. We show how this symbolic boundary work serves to legitimate the local ecosystem, to provide moral valuations for the exchange of capital, to ground different temporalities that inspire urgency in their work, and to enact spatial boundaries amid competing sociotechnical imaginaries. We demonstrate how these contestations contribute to the construction of powerful relevant social groups and their respective technological systems. We thus use the case of AI to take steps toward developing a sociology of hype, drawing on literature in the sociology of technology, boundary work in the professions, and economic sociology.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144685134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-19DOI: 10.1177/08944393251361449
Naomi Smith, Clare Southerton
In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about the role of the image in contemporary society, and the affective logics of late capitalism. Finally, we highlight how GenAI images are profoundly implicated in the extractive and destructive materialities of late capitalism.
{"title":"AI and Aesthetic Alienation: The Image and Creativity in Contemporary Culture","authors":"Naomi Smith, Clare Southerton","doi":"10.1177/08944393251361449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251361449","url":null,"abstract":"In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about the role of the image in contemporary society, and the affective logics of late capitalism. Finally, we highlight how GenAI images are profoundly implicated in the extractive and destructive materialities of late capitalism.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"96 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144677251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-19DOI: 10.1177/08944393251362246
Xiaoti Yue, Hong Hong
Establishing a successful brand on online labor platforms is crucial for freelancers. It helps them attract clients and secure a steady stream of income. Freelancers can maintain their self-branding by adjusting the self-introduction text on their profiles. However, the style of self-branding that contributes to career advancement remains unclear. In this study, we examine the impact of analytical writing on building successful self-branding success. We use LIWC to analyze 7860 profile overviews from 1965 Upwork freelancers collected over four consecutive months. The empirical results show that a highly analytical writing style in these profiles has a negative effect on freelance earnings. Furthermore, we explore the heterogeneity of this effect. We find that higher education and more extensive experience of freelancers mitigate this negative impact, while higher job success scores and top freelancer badges amplify it. Our findings provide guidance for various stakeholders in the online labor market, including freelancers and platform owners, and contribute to the literature on the freelance labor market.
{"title":"Freelancers’ Self-Branding: Is a More Analytical Profile Always Better?","authors":"Xiaoti Yue, Hong Hong","doi":"10.1177/08944393251362246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251362246","url":null,"abstract":"Establishing a successful brand on online labor platforms is crucial for freelancers. It helps them attract clients and secure a steady stream of income. Freelancers can maintain their self-branding by adjusting the self-introduction text on their profiles. However, the style of self-branding that contributes to career advancement remains unclear. In this study, we examine the impact of analytical writing on building successful self-branding success. We use LIWC to analyze 7860 profile overviews from 1965 Upwork freelancers collected over four consecutive months. The empirical results show that a highly analytical writing style in these profiles has a negative effect on freelance earnings. Furthermore, we explore the heterogeneity of this effect. We find that higher education and more extensive experience of freelancers mitigate this negative impact, while higher job success scores and top freelancer badges amplify it. Our findings provide guidance for various stakeholders in the online labor market, including freelancers and platform owners, and contribute to the literature on the freelance labor market.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144677357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-18DOI: 10.1177/08944393251361938
Pegah Moradi, Karen Levy, Elizabeth Chiarello
Frontline workers enforce rules in their interactions with customers, patients, and everyday people. AI and other emerging digital technologies increasingly mediate these interactions, but sociologists have often overlooked how technology affects relationships between enforcer and enforcee. We argue that centering Erving Goffman’s ideas of “cooling the mark out”—ameliorating tense interactions after a loss of face, status, or self-image—can illuminate how new, data-driven technologies shift roles and relationships in frontline work. We illustrate these processes by drawing on three case studies: self-checkout in retail cashiering, electronic driving logs in commercial vehicle inspections, and prescription drug monitoring programs in pharmacy. We conclude with recommendations for how sociologists of AI can draw on Goffman to theorize about changes in frontline work occasioned by new AI-driven technologies.
{"title":"Goffmanian “Cooling” in Technology-Mediated Frontline Enforcement Work","authors":"Pegah Moradi, Karen Levy, Elizabeth Chiarello","doi":"10.1177/08944393251361938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251361938","url":null,"abstract":"Frontline workers enforce rules in their interactions with customers, patients, and everyday people. AI and other emerging digital technologies increasingly mediate these interactions, but sociologists have often overlooked how technology affects relationships between enforcer and enforcee. We argue that centering Erving Goffman’s ideas of “cooling the mark out”—ameliorating tense interactions after a loss of face, status, or self-image—can illuminate how new, data-driven technologies shift roles and relationships in frontline work. We illustrate these processes by drawing on three case studies: self-checkout in retail cashiering, electronic driving logs in commercial vehicle inspections, and prescription drug monitoring programs in pharmacy. We conclude with recommendations for how sociologists of AI can draw on Goffman to theorize about changes in frontline work occasioned by new AI-driven technologies.","PeriodicalId":49509,"journal":{"name":"Social Science Computer Review","volume":"59 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144677354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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