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CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Deliberative democracy in an algorithmic society: harms, contestations and deliberative capacity in the digital public sphere
Democratization, Early Access
2025
Appears in Open Access via Read & Publish Agreements
Abstract
While algorithms largely isolate publics in bubbles of misinformation and conspiracy theories, online spaces and communication enable an opportunity for a connected global public sphere. For deliberative democrats, their concerns over algorithmic harms pertain to how algorithms promote exclusion and political polarization, undermine the epistemic quality of public deliberation by disseminating misinformation, and compromise internal reflection by amplifying particular discourses through bots. However valid these concerns are, focusing on them alone does not offer a holistic theory of deliberative democracy now that we live in a global, connected and algorithmic society. In this article, I argue that deliberative democracy should not only focus on institutional reform to address algorithmic harms, but also emphasize locating the creative political agency of everyday citizens to contest these harms. I recast the three algorithmic harms deliberative democrats identified as three ways ordinary citizens can contest algorithms and, in so doing, contribute to building the polity’s deliberative capacity necessary to democratize our algorithmic society.
Details
- Title
- Deliberative democracy in an algorithmic society: harms, contestations and deliberative capacity in the digital public sphere
- Authors/Creators
- Nardine Alnemr - Murdoch University
- Publication Details
- Democratization, Early Access
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis; ABINGDON
- Number of pages
- 20
- Identifiers
- 991005792073407891
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s).
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; Indo-Pacific Research Centre
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.185 Communication
- 6.185.184 Media and Politics
- Web Of Science research areas
- Political Science
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general