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Discourse Strategies of Implementing Algorithmic Decision Support Systems: The Case of the Austrian Employment Service
Diskursstrategien der Einführung algorithmischer Entscheidungsassistenzsysteme am Beispiel des österreichischen Arbeitsmarktservices
[journal article]
Abstract In the process of digitalisation, social administrations are increasingly turning to algorithmic decision support systems. In this particularly controversial field of application of algorithms, we observe efforts to gain public legitimacy for using such systems. In particular, we examine the impleme... view more
In the process of digitalisation, social administrations are increasingly turning to algorithmic decision support systems. In this particularly controversial field of application of algorithms, we observe efforts to gain public legitimacy for using such systems. In particular, we examine the implementation of the "AMS algorithm" in the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS). Using the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD), we identify three strategies that shape the development of the AMS discourse: (1) the strategy of placing the algorithm in the discursive field of help and efficiency, (2) the strategy of referential agility of the algorithm, and (3) the strategy of the algorithm's incorporation into the organisation. Our discourse analytic approach shows that the social situatedness of digital technologies contradicts the no- tion of technology as a neutral tool. Second, we find that the AMS occupies an important and supporting position during the discourse. The article argues that organisations undergoing digital transformation are involved in discourses on the use of digital technologies and are central to them as such; they shape discourses and constitute phenomena.... view less
Keywords
Austria; social administration; employment office; decision making; algorithm; digitalization
Classification
Sociology of Science, Sociology of Technology, Research on Science and Technology
Technology Assessment
Free Keywords
Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse; discourse strategies; algorithmic decision support systems; AMS algorithm; Organization; Austrian Public Employment Service; digital technologies
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 171-201
Journal
Historical Social Research, 47 (2022) 3
Issue topic
Digital Transformation(s): On the Entanglement of Long-Term Processes and Digital Social Change
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed