From loops to assemblages: the generation of relational expertise

Join our Organisational Theory and Information Systems seminar

Speaker: Professor Ruthanne Huising, ESSEC

About the seminar topic

Social studies of machine learning technologies have largely adopted the technological frames of designers and promoters of these technologies: examining technology as a competitor or collaborator with human cognition, adopting terminology such as domain expertise and human in the loop, and assuming that humans have few possibilities beyond accepting, rejecting, or questioning technological recommendations. Drawing on an 18-month ethnography, we examine how gastroenterologists integrate ML technologies into their work, an assemblage of actors – human and non-human – through which they reason and develop knowledge about abnormalities in patients’ colons. We show how the contributions of ML technologies to knowledge production processes varies – even within a colonoscopy – in relation to temporal and epistemic conditions. This study aims to reorient how the introduction and use of ML technologies is conceived of and articulated in several ways. First, we demonstrate that how members of professions produce expertise is never entirely a cognitive act or a human act, showing how expertise is generated relationally and within a system of actors. This challenges dyadic notions of competition or collaboration with ML technologies. Second, we show that when situated and evaluated in relation to the contributions of numerous other actors, questions about ML technologies’ explainability, accuracy, and certainty are largely absent. This challenges ideas that the use and value of ML technologies can be altered through improvements in transparency and performance. Finally, by identifying how the contributions of the technology relate to temporal and epistemic conditions, we provide practical knowledge of the technology in use.

Speaker bio

Ruthanne Huising is a Professor of Management at ESSEC. Her research examines the role of professions and expertise in organisations and society. Ruthanne is an Associate Editor at Administrative Science Quarterly. She received her PhD from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. She was Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University and Professor of Management at Emlyon Business School.

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No registration required. If you have any questions about this seminar, please email Luke Slater.