Algorithmic Recommenders

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 deals with the importance of recommendation systems, which are pervasive in private and public sectors, commercial or affective relationships, industry, markets, and governments. Algorithmic recommendation systems rationalize human choices, delineating which options are available and visible, organizing and anticipating preferences of citizens and consumers. Further, they rationalize and drive consumer choices, generating opportunities for business optimization. The pervasiveness of algorithmic recommendation systems creates diverse moral and political challenges as evidenced in their uses in social-media platforms and in key services, such as identifying those entitled to receive organ donations. This chapter employs the six dimensions of the Algorithmic Institutionalism framework to discuss multiple examples, exploring various forms of relations enacted by algorithmic recommenders that impact on collective and individual behaviour. These relations are associated with preferences, autonomy, and values that implicitly make evident recommenders’ power and pervasiveness.