— with Maximilian Heimstädt (Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg)
When: 26.11.2024, 1-4 pm
Where: Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin (Flexroom)
Level: Intermediate
Category: Methodology, research design, data collection
Seats: 20 (in-person)
Abstract: Whether they score, sort, rank, predict or evaluate: Algorithms play an increasingly important role for work and workers in and around organizations. To understand the transformative effect of algorithms, a lively field of research has developed around the constitution and consequences of these computational systems in organizational contexts. However, especially when working from an interpretivist social science perspective, researchers in this field often face unexpected methodological challenges. As the anthropologist Nick Seaver has aptly put it: “Just as critical scholars picked them up, algorithms seemed to break apart.” The aim of the workshop is to understand the breaking apart of algorithms as an opportunity for creative research questions, designs and methods. Specifically, the workshop will consist of two parts. In the first part, I will present different “biographical moments” (Glaser, Pollock & D’Adderio) in which algorithms in organizations lend themselves to study—using different qualitative research methods and pursuing different research questions. To illustrate these ways of attending to algorithms, I draw on my own research projects on algorithms in policing, public policy and agriculture. In the second part of the workshop, participants are invited to present their own research projects and ideas, and to discuss methodological challenges with the group.
Maximilian Heimstädt is a Professor of Digital Governance & Service Design at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg.
The workshop is co-organized by the Methods Lab and the Research in Practice – PhD Network for Qualitative Research, coordinated by Katharina Berr and Jana Pannier.