{"id":31,"date":"2024-10-22T13:14:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T12:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/?page_id=31"},"modified":"2025-10-09T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:05:08","slug":"thinking-about-social-systems","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/thinking-about-social-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about social systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AlgoBias Toolkit: Thinking about social systems\" width=\"1300\" height=\"731\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Owwt65NvcXg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why is it useful to think about social systems?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Impact assessments are used by many organisations, either for legal or internal purposes. While these processes provide organisations with a clear plan for documenting their processes, these types of exercises have been criticised as \u2018box ticking exercises\u2019 which don\u2019t provide the space for the deeper thinking required to tackle big social problems like inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">One way of trying to improve the effectiveness of your impact assessments is to think about this like a social scientist. One way to do this would be to consider using a layered approach, to better consider the full scope of effects associated with a technology. This kind of thinking is foundational in fields like sociology, public policy, systems thinking, and critical technology studies. It is also essential for understanding the social impacts of algorithmic technologies. In the social sciences, there\u2019s three commonly used layers to describing social systems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">The <strong>micro level<\/strong>, which focuses on individuals and their relationships with each other. At this level, you are focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and opinions of individuals specifically, and what type of relationships these individuals have with each other, or relationships an individual might have with organisations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">The <strong>meso level<\/strong>, which focuses on groups of individuals. This can be small communities, large organisations, or anything in between. At this level, you focus more on how groups interact with other groups, how individual behaviour influences group dynamics, and how macro-level systems influence group behaviour.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">The <strong>macro level<\/strong>, which focuses on large social structures, for examples legal systems, the educational system, government or global organisations. At this level, it might also be prudent to consider ideologies and how wide-spread beliefs impact the micro and meso level, as well as other macro level systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The boundaries between these levels isn\u2019t clear cut, and is used more as a framework for understanding and studying societal dynamics that being a perfect fit. Additionally, it\u2019s important to consider the relationship between the levels, as well as each level itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Worksheets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Here are some worksheets to think about the social systems your algorithmic technology might be deployed within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/Thinking-about-Social-Systems.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Thinking about Social Systems.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-3fe0fd37-40c1-4f4a-aade-7d5fd1a6f743\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/Thinking-about-Social-Systems.pdf\">Thinking about Social Systems<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/Thinking-about-Social-Systems.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-3fe0fd37-40c1-4f4a-aade-7d5fd1a6f743\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Further Resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Selbst, A.D. <em>et al. <\/em>(2018) \u2018Fairness and Abstraction in Sociotechnical Systems\u2019, in <em>2019 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT*)<\/em>. Available at: https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/abstract=3265913 (Accessed: 11 November 2020).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Seaver, N. (2017) \u2018Algorithms as culture: Some tactics for the ethnography of algorithmic systems\u2019, Big Data &amp; Society, 4(2), p. 205395171773810. Available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/2053951717738104\">doi.org\/10.1177\/2053951717738104<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Moss, E. and Metcalf, J. (2020) \u2018Ethics Owners: A New Model of Organizational Responsibility in Data-Driven Technology Companies\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is it useful to think about social systems? Impact assessments are used by many organisations, either for legal or internal purposes. While these processes provide organisations with a clear [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thinking about social systems - AlgoBias ToolKit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeofdata.org\/site\/algobias-toolkit\/thinking-about-social-systems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking about social systems - AlgoBias ToolKit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why is it useful to think about social systems? 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