SODAS Data Discussion, Cecilie Dohlmann Weatherall & Nete Schwennesen
Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS), is pleased to announce that we are continuing the success with SODAS Data Discussions this spring.
SODAS aspirers to be a resource for all students and researchers at the Faculty of Social Sciences. We therefor invite researchers across the faculty to present ongoing research projects, project applications or just a loose idea that relates to the subject of social data science.
Every month two researchers will present their work. The rules are simple: short research presentations of ten minutes are followed by twenty minutes of debate. No papers will be circulated beforehand, and the presentations cannot be longer than five slides.
Cecilie Dohlmann Weatherall, Senior Researcher at Kraks Fond, and Nete Schwennesen, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Center for Healthy Ageing, will present at the second SODAS Data Discussion of this spring the 8th of March.
Cecilie Dohlmann Weatherall:
The non-Western Immigrant Concentration in a Neighborhood Affect Mental Health:
Evidence from a quasi-random allocation of applicants in the public social housing system
Abstract
Social interaction among neighbors influences residents’ employability and criminal behavior, in particular among male non-Western immigrants. In this paper we look at whether high concentration of non-Western immigrants in a neighborhood influences non-Western residents’ mental health. The combination of manual data collection from the public social housing system and administrative registry panel data gives us the opportunity to examine the causal impact of non-Western immigrants’ concentration on mental health. Our results from a quasi-random allocation of households into different neighborhoods suggest that being allocated to a neighborhood with a higher concentration of Non-Western immigrants has a significant and negative impact on mental health for non-Western immigrants. The effect is mainly among men. In particular, there is a significant and large effect on mental health from the concentration of immigrants from the residents’ own language group.
Nete Schwennesen:
When the physiotherapist goes digital: Algorithmic authority in the making
Abstract
As human life becomes increasingly entangled with digital technologies, algorithmic systems are becoming a significant part of everyday life. The delegation of tasks to algorithms and their ability to make decisions without (or with little) human intervention has been characterized as a process of algorithmic authority, where algorithms increasingly shape ‘who we are and what we see’. This paper engage with the concept of algorithmic authority by way of analysing the affective and material processes through which algorithmic authority is created, negotiated and sometimes broken down. The study is based on an ethnographic exploration of the implementation of a smart phone application (ICURA) for the promotion of home-training for patients who have undergone hip replacement surgery in Denmark, and explores what happens when algorithms are designed to take on tasks in the arena of physical rehabilitation. I conclude by arguing, that the tendency among scholars to center on algorithms as the main actor producing authority, may overlook the dynamic material and affectual relations involved in the process of producing and maintaining algorithmic authority over time.
The SODAS Data Discussion will take place at SODAS' new location in building 1, 2nd floor, room 26 (1.2.26) of the CSS Campus, University of Copenhagen, from 11.00 am to 12.00 pm.
If you have questions or want to know more, please write Agnete Vienberg Hansen at avh@econ.ku.dk.