The Feel of Algorithms

“Ruckenstein’s book offers a much-needed challenge to the pervasive analogy between algorithms and rationality and the obsession with intelligence.”

* Journal of Communication *
“Minna Ruckenstein’s carefully composed new book predominantly sees algorithms through the lens of those engaging with their outputs. In its pages algorithms take on a material form fleshed.” * Information, Communication & Society *

“Minna Ruckenstein’s The Feel of Algorithms is a welcome intervention in the conversations about the multifaceted impacts of algorithms on our lives and society at large.”

* Social & Cultural Geography *
“The work is recommended for academics and students with interdisciplinary backgrounds to receive technological insight with broad human and social perspectives. The book is also highly recommended for professionals and policymakers in the tech industry, as it offers critical insight into the structure of human feelings and emotions driven by algorithms, facilitating the development of human-centered practices. Ethicists, philosophers, activists, and tech advocates will find this book invaluable to understanding individual agency with ethical and societal dilemmas. Lastly, tech-curious readers will have an accessible look into the impact of algorithms on society and how their personal experience can be interpreted in this era of algorithms.” * International Journal of Communication *
“This book is detailed, well evidenced, and novel in its approach. Anthropologists will appreciate how Ruckenstein brackets the truth value algorithm talk in favor of its pragmatic capacity to influence social life.” * American Ethnologist *

“The Feel of Algorithms is … a conceptual and cultural intervention. It succeeds in bringing [effect] to the forefront of algorithm studies and offers a much-needed vocabulary for discussing the textures of algorithmic life.”

* Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale *