Abstract

This article examines recent contributions from different disciplinary fields that consider algorithms as central objects of study to understand the current constitution of the social field and the redefinition of the relationship between design and operation, will and action, decision and procedure, government and governmentality. In particular, three approaches to the problem of a semantics of algorithmic power are analyzed: the first focuses on the programming phase and on who decides on the design of algorithms; the second locates in algorithmic computation the transition from a power tied to people to a power tied to machinic constructs, endowed with a certain degree of autonomy and its own governmental logic; finally, the third rests on a historical and structural perspective and ties algorithmic power to the transformations of statehood and society in conjunction with the advent of neoliberal capitalism