Reconsidering algorithmic management: feminist research tools for challenging computational thinking

With the increased use and popularization of digital technologies and social media platforms, scholars seek to understand the societal impact of digital transformations. From the “networked,” “information,” “datafied” and “algorithmic society” to the “age of artificial intelligence” several theses are proposed about the radical transformations of the social due to informatization and digitalization of everyday lives, the development of big data analytics and algorithmic management. Scholars call for investigations of these developments through humanist-based traditions to counter the turn to empiricist pattern-detection, validation, and testing. Such engagements can be observed in fields like critical data studies, feminist media studies and critical race theory. We argue that discussions about the limits of “value-free,” “disembodied,” “objective,” and “neutral” knowledge production in big data research are reminiscent of feminist standpoint epistemologies. This chapter considers feminists epistemological principles to explore the potential of critical analysis of computational transformations in management and organization.