Political Order and Algorithmic Constellation: Technology as a Project of Order

Abstract

The essay reconstructs the specificity of the algorithmic constellation that has established itself globally since 2001. It identifies platforms as asymmetric configurations of power that enable accumulation while operating a centralisation that allows for an original reconfiguration of the social. Through them, algorithms perform two specific political functions: the mediation between computational and cultural content and a command function that establishes the behaviour that digital individuals can and should engage in. Platforms are therefore not only a new form of enterprise, but also a political model that invests the state, which, by renouncing certain elements of its sovereignty, reaffirms its specific role within the algorithmic political form.