Kaleidoscopic algorithms: Devices, Moral Discourses and Institutional Change in Chile’s School Admission System

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: College Admissions and Stratification

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of “kaleidoscopic algorithms” to explain how algorithm-based public policies evolve through iterative interactions among various stakeholders and structural factors. Building on Christin’s (2020) notion of “algorithmic refraction,” we argue that algorithms function like prisms whose refractive properties continually accumulate the effects of prior transformations. Rather than being ideologically neutral, these socio-technical devices are “actants” (Callon, 1986) that actively shape and are shaped by human actors, institutional frameworks, and moral norms.
When public policies incorporate algorithms, as with Unified Enrollment (UE) systems, their intended outcomes—often framed in economic terms of fairness and efficiency—become entangled with structural social and political dynamics, creating apparently unforeseen reactions and interactions. This entanglement is especially evident in Chile’s School Admission System (SAS), where a market-based algorithm was introduced by a left-wing government seeking equitable access to education. Although it is based on market design principles, the SAS quickly became the focus of intense political debates, revealing how algorithms can trigger broader controversies about justice, legitimacy, and institutional authority.
“Kaleidoscopic algorithms” highlight how these evolving socio-technical assemblages have performative effects extending beyond their initial deployment. As new interpretations and adjustments emerge, the algorithm’s “refraction” shifts, generating short-, medium-, and long-term repercussions for governmentality. These include shaping user behaviors, creating new power struggles, and modifying institutional landscapes. Over time, such iterative processes may strengthen or destabilize algorithm-based policies, reflecting whether and how they become legitimized within changing political contexts.
By following the accumulation of these refractive and performative effects, researchers can better understand how algorithmic devices interact with social structures and generate ongoing institutional change. In doing so, this approach emphasizes that algorithms are not isolated technical tools but embedded, evolving instruments of public action. They must be studied holistically, acknowledging their capacity to reconfigure power relationships and moral understandings across multiple temporal and institutional dimensions.

Authors

• Felipe Bustos, Universidad Central de Chile

• Gabriel Chouhy, Universidad Central de Chile