Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence and Beyond

“A journey across the blurry landscapes of a society reshaped by algorithms and AI. This book brings clarity and depth through a wide set of theoretical lenses that cover the technological, political, economic and cultural aspects of our current algorithmic condition.”

Massimo Airoldi, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Milan, Italy

“Algorithms and artificial intelligence are calling into question many established conceptions and theories of the social world. By integrating a range of theories, this comprehensive new book provides the conceptual tools needed to gain insight and perspective on these shifts.”

David Beer, Professor of Sociology, University of York, UK

“This is a wonderfully timely book on algorithmic culture and artificial intelligence. I am pleased to see this theme historizised from a modernization perspective as a contrast to the presentism of so much of contemporary work in this area. This is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the present algorithmic condition in its wider historical context.”

Göran Bolin, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden

“This is an important new collection on the ‘algorithmic condition’. The pervasiveness of algorithms and AI in everyday life demands not only empirical work but new (and old) theoretical frameworks. This volume offers those frameworks from a rich variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives with excellent contributions from both established and early career scholars and from the Global South as well as the North. The focus on theorising means that the significance of the collection will endure long beyond the latest version of an AI chatbot or instalment of the algorithmic turn.”

John Downey, Professor of Comparative Media Analysis, Loughborough University, UK, and Former President of European Communication Research & Education Association (ECREA)

“A rich and diverse collection of essays using social theory to understand the profound impacts of artificial intelligence and “algorithms” on society and culture. Researchers and students hungry for fresh ways of examining the vital issues raised by these technologies should devour this volume.”

David Hesmondhalgh, Professor of Media, Music and Culture, University of Leeds, UK

“This theoretically and empirically rich edited volume by Brzeziński and others offers novel insights in the adoption of AI and algorithms in the private sector. In exploring various dimensions of algorithmic conditions, practical cases and ethical implications, the book provides a comprehensive, multidimensional, and multi-perspective study on the algorithmic revolution. The book will be of great interest to scholars in sociology, media and communication, politics, computer sciences, and governance.”

Carolijn van Noort, Associate Professor of Blue Governance, Aalborg University, Denmark

“Is AI a new "social actor"? The new "engine" of social change? Or are these 19th-century concepts not adequate to the challenges posed by the revolution that seemingly everyone - in industry, state, science and the arts - wants AI to be? Offering a much-needed antidote to the uncritical use of outdated concepts in today's "AI debate", this book opens up a broad range of promising paths towards a new theory of technology and society in the face of AI.”

Noortje Marres, Professor in Science, Technology and Society, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, UK

“The book is a timely and important contribution to understanding how AI and data driven technologies interact with society from the perspective of social sciences and humanities. The latter branch of science is all too often left out in the current AI research and funding. The different chapters significantly fill the gap by taking a conceptual, interdisciplinary, international, and critical perspective on key issues co-shaping the algorithmic condition.”

Jo Pierson, Professor of Responsible Digitalisation, Hasselt University, Belgium, and Professor of Media and Communication Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

“This book explores the profound impact of AI and algorithms on society and culture. It examines the dual nature of digital technologies as tools of innovation and instruments of power, addressing their applications, ethical challenges, and influence on social inequalities. A must-read for understanding the intersection of technology and society in the digital age.”

Aleksandra Przegalińska, Vice Rector of ESR and International Affairs, Kozminski University, Poland, and Senior Research Associate, Center for Labour and Just Economy, Harvard University, USA