Dissecting the Gatekeepers

Theo Röhle

The popular notion of search engines as extremely powerful entities typically reduces complex socio-technical arrangements to a limited set of linear and causal effects. Instead, a combination of Foucauldian concepts of power and Actor-Network-Theory is suggested in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the power relations at stake. Rather than perceiving search engines as fixed sources of power, they should be perceived as temporary stabilisations of ongoing negotiations between social and technical agencies. This relational perspective allows for a more accurate mapping of the underlying shifting associations, thus providing more profound insights into the workings of selection mechanisms and the tracking and prediction of consumer behaviour.

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