Daria Gritsenko - Algorithmic Governance - A Public Perspective

When: 2024-02-19 14:00-16:00 (Tallinn time)
Where: online

The event is public via zoom: https://zoom.us/j/94927755198?pwd=VWpWU25DY1JlVFJsbDF4aUtyL3Zvdz09
Websites: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/daria-gritsenko

Abstract – In our digitalising world, algorithmic systems are widely used in public governance. Examples range from parking enforcement and loan applications to social benefits allocation and criminal sentencing decisions. Scholars are largely concerned about opaqueness, privacy risks, biases and lacking accountability of algorithmic systems that may undermine the legitimacy of algorithmic governance. Studies show that citizens are also concerned with potential deficiencies of algorithmic systems and often consider algorithmic governance less legitimate compared to governance that involves humans. While existing accounts show what people perceive as (il)legitimate, they fail to explain why we observe a preference towards human-in-the-loop systems, whether this finding holds universally across contexts or what can cause a change in public attitudes. In my talk, I will present a novel ‘Legitimation Heuristic Model’ and demonstrate how this model can help us to explore how legitimacy judgments are created and changed in the minds of individuals when they encounter algorithmic systems of rule.

Additional information – Dr. Daria Gritsenko is an Associate professor in Digital Social Science at the Center for Social Data Science at University of Helsinki (Finland). She holds a PhD in Political Science (2014) and a title of Docent in Environmental Policy (2018), both from the University of Helsinki. She is an expert in mixed methods research, in particular combining computational social science and qualitative approaches. Her most recent research has targeted the digital transformation of the state and society in the light of broader sustainability concerns. Gritsenko’s research has been funded among others by the Finnish Academy, NOS-HS, the Fulbright Foundation, and the European Research Council (ERC). In 2018-19, she was a Fellow of the prestigious Fulbright Arctic Initiative and a Visiting Scholar at the IERES (GWU). In 2021, Daria Gritsenko was awarded Nils Klim Prize “for her outstanding research contributions in the intersection between political science, environmental studies and digital humanities”.