Algorithmic imaginaries: Definition and critical questions

Abstract

Algorithmic systems play an increasingly central role across a variety of social domains. Over the last few years, various concepts have been developed in the interdisciplinary field of algorithm studies to understand how people make sense of these systems and interact with them – including mental models of algorithms, folk theories of algorithms, or algorithmic imaginaries. This theoretical article engages with the concept of the algorithmic imaginary in particular. It argues that the concept of the algorithmic imaginary occupies a unique position in literature, foregrounding questions of affect and emotion in human-algorithm interaction, and theorising the dynamics of sense-making about algorithms in such terms. Critically examining work that has explicitly applied and developed the concept, we synthesise the scholarship, offer an updated definition, and pose critical questions for future research, including on emergent artificial intelligence phenomena.