Emancipatory agency and rebalancing of power in algorithmic systems – a Simondonian perspective
基于对一家全球船用发动机公司16个月的民族志研究，探讨算法管理系统如何影响机械师的自主性和工作场所权力关系，并揭示算法技术既作为控制工具又可能成为工人解放性能动性来源的双重特征。
Drawing on a 16-month ethnographic study at a global marine engine company, this paper investigates how mechanics’ autonomy and workplace power relations are shaped when labor is mediated by algorithmic management systems (AMS). Can workers’ engagement with AMS generate emancipatory forms of agency not fully subsumed under managerial goals? Mobilizing Simondon’s perspective on technology, the paper examines the mechanics’ capacity to act through AMS and shows how aspects of this engagement become partially decoupled from organizational ends. The findings highlight the dual character of algorithmic technologies: as instruments of organizational control and, simultaneously, as sites of potential emancipatory agency for workers.