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An Ethnography of Vulnerability: A New Materialist Approach to the Apparatus of Measurement, the Algorithm
Author(s) -
Riberi Valentina,
González Erika,
Rojas Lasch Carolina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1111/aeq.12359
Subject(s) - ethnography , materialism , sociology , assemblage (archaeology) , vulnerability (computing) , epistemology , process (computing) , work (physics) , algorithm , social science , computer science , anthropology , biology , ecology , computer security , philosophy , mechanical engineering , engineering , operating system
During an ethnographic study of two Chilean schools over a period of three years, we observed the discursive assemblage of “what is vulnerable” emerging from an algorithm used to allocate public resources. In this article, we unravel the ways in which the algorithm intra‐acts with other elements in the process of producing what is vulnerable and how this affects our approach to ethnography. We conclude by considering two methodological dilemmas that arose from our work.