The Correlation Machine: Digital governance and governing the digital?
In this presentation I want to explore digital governance as a new form of governance that aims to govern effects based on correlations. I will argue that this form of governance is a dramatically different form of governance that effectively hides the political and ethical and acts to displace or defer problems deemed unsolvable in some form. I will illustrate this mode of governance by reviewing my work on governing academic writing through plagiarism detection systems as well as the way machine learning is being used to govern a variety of problems such as recruitment and policing. In each case I will attempt to show what digital governance does, ethically and politically, drawing on the notion of correlational performativity. I want to argue why I believe it is necessary for society to be critical of these governing practices which are becoming quite pervasive and remains largely unchallenged—partly because they are inscrutable but also partly because they are seen in neutral political terms, predominantly. I will conclude with some questions about how we might respond to these digital governing practices, individually and collectively.