Algorithmic epistemologies and methodologies: Algorithmic harm, algorithmic care and situated algorithmic knowledges

Abstract

Algorithms have been the focus of important geographical critique, particularly in relation to their harmful and discriminatory effects. However, less attention has been paid to engaging more deeply with the epistemological effects of algorithms, the result being that geographers continue to overlook more generative algorithmic potentials, practices, epistemes and methodologies. This paper progresses our engagements with algorithms by first considering practices of care as a means to reframe our relationship with algorithms. Second, the paper identifies an epistemological rupture that allows us to reconceptualise algorithms as co-researchers, enabling us to encounter new spaces and understand these spaces in new ways.