Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants: An Anthropological Examination of Algorithmic Recommendation System Design

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The Co-PI, Nicholas Seaver, under the supervision of the PI, William Maurer, will explore the factors that influence the design of algorithmic recommendation systems. The researcher asks how algorithmic classification is influenced by sociocultural, legal, and economic contexts, as well as how the cultural theories of engineers are formed and operationalized in code. This project seeks to answer these questions through a case study in music recommendation, one of the more active research and development areas in algorithmic recommender systems. In particular, it investigates how the designers of recommender systems mediate between ideas about the formalized, quantitative nature of algorithms and the subjective, "cultural" nature of preference. As domains once thought to be ineffably human become more entwined with logics of computation, anthropologists are uniquely positioned to consider how these tensions are defined, mediated, and resolved, particularly within expert knowledge communities which build specific resolutions into widely influential technical systems.Data will be collected through ethnographic fieldwork at several academic and industry sites in the US, where techniques for representing data and producing recommendations are developed and implemented. This fieldwork includes participant-observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with engineers, researchers, managers and interns involved in the production of these systems.Findings from this research will contribute to public and academic debates about the functions and effects of algorithmic filtering, as well as to the anthropological understanding of computation, work, and classificatory practice. The project contributes to the training of a graduate student in anthropology. The findings will inform the design of new algorithmic systems by helping engineers be cognizant of the cultural paradigms they build into technical infrastructures.