Algorithms and Public Administration

In this series, we discuss a range of themes at the intersection of complex systems, institutional adaptation, and public administration.

Context:

1. Institutions increasingly encounter algorithms, and government agencies are trying to adapt so that core values and policies are expressed through these algorithms

2. Delivery riders are recruited, deployed, paid and let go by algorithms, instead of human employers who must answer to labor laws

3. algorithmic justice is an emerging field that is still being learned by policy-makers and public administrators

Objectives:

1. Illustrate the effect upon people of (unmonitored, untamed/ungoverned) algorithms and understand practical challenges in governing algorithm-enabled industries and ecosystems

2. describe scenarios of bureaucratic adaptations to algorithm-enabled industries and sectors

3. explore projects that might be undertaken by co-creation labs at the intersection of algorithms, social policy, politics, and public administration in order to advance the local discourse on this topic

References

Coded Bias on Netflix

Choudary, Sangeet Paul. "The architecture of digital labour platforms: Policy recommendations on platform design for worker well-being." ILO Future of work Research paper series 3 (2018). click here to download

Complexity-aware Monitoring, USAID Discussion Note (2016)

Eppel, Elizabeth Anne, and Mary Lee Rhodes. "Complexity theory and public management: a ‘becoming’field." Public Management Review 20.7 (2018): 949-959.