Algorithms and the End of Politics: How Technology Shapes 21st-Century American Life

by Scott Timcke

Overview

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. As the US contends with issues of populism and de-democratization, this timely study considers the impacts of digital technologies on the country’s politics and society. Timcke provides a Marxist analysis of the rise of digital media, social networks and technology giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. He looks at the impact of these new platforms and technologies on their users who have made them among the most valuable firms in the world. Offering bold new thinking across data politics and digital and economic sociology, this is a powerful demonstration of how algorithms have come to shape everyday life and political legitimacy in the US and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529215328
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	198
Sales rank:	758,967
File size:	677 KB

About the Author

Scott Timcke studies the politics of race, class, and social inequality as they are mediated by digital infrastructures.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Great Simplification Algorithms and The Critical Theory of Technology The One Dimensionality of Data Reactionary Tendencies in the Ruling Class Platforms of Power The Whiteness of Communication Studies Misinformation and Ideology Testbeds for Authoritarianism Conclusion: The Fatal Abstractions of Capitalist Rule

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This provocative and illuminating book shows how digital technologies impose capitalism upon every facet of our lives and undermine democracy. An important critique that I highly recommend.” Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania

Editorial Reviews

"Offering bold new thinking across data politics and digital and economic sociology, this is a powerful demonstration of how algorithms have come to shape everyday life and political legitimacy in the US and beyond." New Books Network

From the Publisher