Cultural Innovation under Metrics: A Computational Analysis of Personal Finance Blog as a Case

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 1. Digital Publics & Algorithmic Culture(s)

Abstract

Sociologists have long studied how the practice and institutionalization of quantification, calculation, and metricization are fundamentally constitutive of contemporary social life in many domains. The focus is on a resurgence due to the soaring relevance of algorithms. Even though the literature has tended to associate these tools with homogenization of organizational practices, that understanding imposes some challenges in theorizing ideational innovation and diffusion, as theories of cultural resonance predict some degree of diversion from predominant schemas. What effects do algorithmic tools have on production of ideas? How could (or could not) organizations create new ideas under such an informational architecture that possibly favors homogeneity? Analyzing a wide range of digital texts on personal finance, my project addresses the empirical puzzle of “financizliation of everyday life" as a case to examine the link between algorithmically mediated information production and cultural innovation, resonance, and diffusion. More specifically, I investigate the effect of web analytic tool adoption on topic distribution and convergence using computational techniques.

Author

• Ryo Sato, University of Chicago