The (Dis-)Entanglement of Knowledge and Experience in a Datafied Life-World
Journal
The Palgrave Handbook of Macrophenomenology and Social Theory
Type
book section
Date Issued
2023
Author(s)
Abstract
In a datafied life-world we constantly interact with objects that are permanently collecting and exchanging data about us and others according to semiotic principles inaccessible to us. This process of knowledge generation is detached from our experience. However, the output generated by these epistemic “black boxes” restructures our positionedness in the life-world as well as our relatedness to others. In order to make sense for us, the output of algorithmic knowledge production must be meaningfully integrated into our experience of the life-world. The goal of my chapter is to discuss a conceptual framework that allows us to bring in line (inter-)subjective experiences in a datafied life-world with their structural conditional contexts. Alfred Schutz’s and Thomas Luckmann’s “Structures of the Life-World” allow me to formalize the temporal and spatial conditions under which this dialectic process of knowledge generation and experience takes place. I argue that their semiology enables us to better understand the process of how we meaningfully integrate the output of algorithmic systems into our experience of the life-world. I contest that these insights can be fruitful for analyzing large-scale social phenomena like the “singularization of society” (Reckwitz) or the emergence of “echo chambers” (Rosa).
Publisher
Springer International Publishing