• Joonas Aitonurmi, Digital and population data services agency
• Hans Nylén,  STUNS Energy
• Carl Brandt,  Liva Health
•  Maja Cimerman, Danes je nov dan
• Ole Graumann, Odense University Hospital
• Minna Mustakallio, Un/Know
• Riitta Nieminen-Sundell,  Lunden Architecture Company
• Bulent Ozel, Lucid Minds
• Alex Parsons, My Society
• Valentina Rajaković, Radio Študent
• Antti Rannisto, Solita
• Heli Rantavuo, Spotify
• Viivi Lähteenoja, My Data Global
• Matthias Spielkamp, AlgorithmWatch

Project website

Project achievements:

REIMAGINE ADM brought together a group of scholars who had studied automated decision-making and algorithmic systems across sectors, ranging from insurance and health to energy and media with a bold proposition: rather than launch a conventional project that starts with new data collection and ends with siloed deliverables, we would build a shared conceptual vocabulary to assess and reimagine the futures of algorithmic systems. The broader question was how to move beyond isolated case studies and develop common conceptual resources and tools that reveal the patterns, values and logics underpinning automation in society. This matters because algorithmic systems increasingly shape public services, corporate decisions and everyday life, yet research and policy conversations often remain fragmented. By synthesising what we already know and creating concepts that travel across contexts, we aimed to improve how scholars, students and stakeholders make sense of these systems and how they act on that understanding.

We set out to create a “metaproject”: a collaborative effort for detecting shared patterns across diverse cases and for developing novel vocabularies that clarify how algorithmic systems operate and affect people. Our objectives were to identify and refine a set of core keywords that illuminate the logics and values embedded in algorithmic systems, to build a shared conceptual foundation that helps researchers and practitioners engage critically with automation, and to translate these insights into practical tools that support collaborative learning and informed debate.

We discussed our prior work, tested resonant concepts, and used both digital and analogue mapping techniques to explore connections and tensions. These sessions helped us see which concepts sparked productive discussion, which needed refinement, and how the language we used shaped the questions people asked and the insights they generated.

As the collaboration deepened, a set of keywords, including repair, friction, threshold and steering, proved particularly powerful for our work. These terms helped uncover the operational logics of algorithmic systems, surface the values embedded in design and deployment. By mobilising our keywords, we could examine how people interact with these systems within broader social and institutional contexts. Using shared keywords made it easier to detect common patterns across sectors and to anticipate possible trajectories of change.

Our exploratory work with other researchers and stakeholders confirmed that, when coupled with targeted prompts, the keywords promoted critical thinking and collaborative knowledge-making, enabling participants to probe assumptions, articulate trade-offs and connect technical mechanisms to social consequences.

To make these newly gained insights accessible and actionable, we created REAL cards (REimage ALgorithmic systems). The cards package the vocabulary and guiding questions into a tangible resource for workshops, teaching, and stakeholder dialogue. The impact we anticipate is twofold: the cards and underlying vocabulary can catalyse richer, more coherent conversations about algorithmic systems across disciplines and sectors; and the metaproject approach offers a model for collaborative work. In future work, we can build on existing work to generate shared insights and develop methodologies and tools, rather than starting from scratch.

Publications:

• Lehtiniemi T., Contextual social valences for artificial intelligence: anticipation that matters in social work, Information, Communication & Society, 2023, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2234987
• Ruckenstein M., The Feel of Algorithms, University of California Press, 2023
• Parks L. & de Ridder S., Velkova J., Media Backends, Digital Infrastructures &  Sociotechnical Relations, Illinois University Press, 2023, https://books.google.fi/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NvjiEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA33&dq=related:sIhDfzyzPuQJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=oSw8t7dtBC&sig=24wkUvNOMUuzw98gtnFxKUauVnQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Moats D., Pretnar Žagar A., Perspectives on AI in the British and Slovenian parliament, Digital Parliamentary Data in Action, 2024
• Eidenskog M., Réka A., Beyond barriers – exploring resistance towards BIM through a knowledge infrastructure framework, Construction Management and Economics, 2023, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01446193.2023.2218498
• Velkova J., Kaun A., Beyond Academic Publics: Conversations about Scholarly Collaborations with Cultural Institutions, Linköping University Press, 2024
• Moats D., Yu-Shan T., Sorting a public? Using quali-quantitative methods to interrogate the role of algorithms in digital democracy platforms, Information, Communication & Society, 2023, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2230286
• Velkova J., Powering Computers, Dismantling Public Values: The Energy Politics of Computation Work in Sweden, The Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Selected Papers in Internet Research, 2024
• Velkova J., Retrofitting and ruining: Bunkered data centers in and out of time, New Media & Society, 2023, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221149946
• Velkova J., Vicki Mayer, This site is a dead end? Employment uncertainties and labor in data centers, The Information Society, 2023, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01972243.2023.2169974#2b85d6ca-6520-4a3d-8e4a-aa9f2ee3f33d-b6de7b7c-de82-45a5-9538-313dd15c6659
• Velkova J.,  Jean-Christophe Plantin, Data centers and the infrastructural temporalities of digital media: An introduction, New Media & Society, 2023, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221149945
• Velkova J., Data Infrastructures and their Temporalities, Sage Handbook of Data and Society; Sage Publication, 2024
• Velkova J., Ortar N., Taylor A.R.E., Brodie P., Johnson A., Marquet C., Pollio A. & Cirolia L., Powering ‘Smart’ Futures: Data Centres and the Energy Politics of Digitalisation., Energy Futures: Anthropocene Challenges, Emerging Technologies and Everyday Life, De Gruyter, 2022
• Velkova J., Mayer V., Placemaking, Infrastructuring & Curating: Social Mapping of Media Infrastructure Regions, Media Backends: Digital Infrastructures and Sociotechnical Relations, University of Illinois Press, 2023
• Pretnar Žagar A. ,Making sense of sensors, An anthropology of futures and technologies, Taylor & Francis, Routledge, 2022
• Mursic R., Pretnar Žagar A., Đukić N., Document enrichment as a tool for automated interview coding, Conference on Language Technologies and Digital Humanities, 2022
• Kristensen D., Bode M., From techno-utopianism to personal panopticon and beyond: A call for a revised self-tracking research agenda, The Routledge handbook of digital consumption, 2022
• Kristensen D., Kuruoglu, A. P. & Banke, S., Trajectories, Traces and Tensions: Making and Navigating algorithmic worlds, Conference proceeding to ICR conference, Malaga, 2024
• Kristensen D., Tanninen M., Bode M., Bastien Presset & Federico Garcia Baena, Techno Utopia and Digital Inequalities: The Case of Self-tracking, Conference proceeding, Consumer Culture Theory conference, 2023
• Kristensen D., Møhl P., Harbsmeier M., Henriques P., Gudrun Jensen T., and Sjørslev I., Myter: En introduction, Tidsskriftet Antropologi, 2024, https://tidsskrift.dk/tidsskriftetantropologi/article/view/141359/185181
• Kristensen D., Møhl P., Henriette, L., Svendsen M.N.  & Høyer K., Medical Anthropology, Tidsskriftet Antropologi, 2023
• Eidenskog, M.; Andersson, R.; Glad, W., Workshops as a Relational Material Research Practice: Creating Space for Shared Knowledge, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol. 23, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406924129742
• Pretnar Žagar, A.; Podjed, D., Ethnography Beyond Thick Data, Annals of Anthropological Practice, vol. 48(2), 2024, https://doi.org/10.1111/napa.12226
• Moats, D.; Pretnar Žagar, A., Perspectives on AI in the British and Slovenian parliament, Digital Parliamentary Data in Action (DiPaDA 2024) workshop, 2025, https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/perspectives-on-ai-in-the-british-and-slovenian-parliament/
• Moats, D.; Trifuljesko, S., Valuable actions and actionable values: Tinkering with principles and practices in AI ethics, The Sociological Review, vol. 73(6), 2025, https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251316661 ,
• Podjed, D., Can we make a pause while racing toward the unknown future?, Dialogues on Digital Society, vol. 1(2), 2025, https://doi.org/10.1177/29768640251338969
• Podjed, D.; Cerisek, G.; Arko, S.; Zabret, P., People on the Road: From Automated Mobility to Autonomous Human Actors through a People-Centred Approach, The De Gruyter Handbook of Automated Futures: Imaginaries, Interactions and Impact, 2024, https://books.google.fi/books?id=bXohEQAAQBAJ
• Møhl, P.; Eidenskog, M.; Tanninen, M.; Elhadj, E., What Models Cannot hold: Codeability, Selectivity, Holism, and the Elusiveness of Human Practices, Big Data & Society, 2025
• Lehtiniemi, T.; Rydenfelt, H.; Haapoja, J.; Haapanen, L., Autonomy and Algorithms: Tracing the Significance of Content Personalization, International Journal of Communication, vol. 19, 2025, https://research.aalto.fi/en/publications/autonomy-and-algorithms-tracing-the-significance-of-content-perso/
• Eidenskog, M., Thinking with careful thresholds on the dark side of algorithmic modelling, Information, Communication and Society, 2025
• Eidenskog, M., Collapsing buildings and algorithmic responsibilities, Big Data & Society, 2025
• Møhl, P., Threshold analysis: Getting to the Trouble in Automated Systems, Big Data & Society, 2025
• Van Hoyweghen, I.; Tanninen, M.; Elhadj, E., Future-making from afar: Nearness and Remoteness within Digital Twins in Medicine, Sociology of Health and Illness (special issue), 2025
• Tanninen, M., Broken loops, open futures: The building and breaking of behavioural insurance, Big Data & Society, vol. 11(4), 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241309885
• Tanninen, M.; Mayers, G., (Dis)trust in Digital Insurance: How Datafied Practices Shift Uncertainties and Reconfigure Trust Relations, The British Journal of Sociology, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.13223
• Tanninen, M.; Presset, B., Reconfigurations of responsibility: health insurance policyholders’ daily experiences of self-tracking, Journal of Cultural Economy, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2025.2458009
• Ruckenstein, M.; Tanninen, M.; Helén, I., Epic disappointment: Physicians’ experiences of steerability in data-driven healthcare, SSM – Qualitative Research in Health, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100667
• Kristensen, D.; Clarke, A.; Evald, M.; Grønning, A.; Schneider-Kamp, A., Digital Health Communication and Inequality: A Meta-Synthesis of Concepts and Assumptions, Technology in Society, 2025
• Kristensen, D.; Tanninen, M.; Presset, B.; Bode, M.; García Baena, F., Self-tracking inequalities in public health: Mapping the landscape and identifying avenues for research, Health, 2025
• Kristensen, D.; Adrian, S. W., The mess we’re in. Situational analysis revisited, Qualitative Health Research, 2025
• Kristensen, D.; Kuruoğlu, A.; Wummel, J., Seeing the Body Eye to Eye: Knowledge Work through Menstrual Tracking within Natural Family Planning Communities, Marketing Theory, 2025
• Moats, D.; Ganguly, C., Bringing AI Participation Down to Scale, Patterns, vol. 6(5), 2025, https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(25)00089-3
• Moats, D.; Oltrop, T.; van Eck, N. J.; Varga, J.; Waltman, L.; Dechesne, F., Making problems: Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration in AI ethics, Science as Culture, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2025.2584759
• Velkova, J., De-Centring Artificial Intelligence and Rethinking Sustainability, in: AI Infrastructures and Sustainability: Expanding Perspectives on Automation, Communication and Media, 2025
• Velkova, J.; Sefyrin, J., The Good Infrastructure: Digital Futures, Values and Friction, in: AI Infrastructures and Sustainability: Expanding Perspectives on Automation, Communication and Media, 2025
• Velkova, J., Aligning Energy Grids, Clouds and Public Values in Sweden, in: AI Infrastructures and Sustainability: Expanding Perspectives on Automation, Communication and Media, 2025-11-17
• Velkova, J., Data Infrastructures and their Temporalities, Sage Handbook of Data and Society, 2025, https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-data-and-society/book281091#contents
• Velkova, J.; Johnson, E., Critical Data Studies meets Sociology, Sociologisk Forskning, 2025, https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.62.27811
• Ruckenstein, M.; Velkova, J.; Lehtiniemi, T.; Moats, D.; Møhl, P.; Pretnar Žagar, A.; Eidenskog, M.; Tanninen, M.; Elhadj, E., The Dark Side of Public Values in Algorithmic Systems, Dialogues on Digital Society, 2025
• Velkova, J., Unfolding Paper, Unflattening Relations: Pop-up Books as Analog Media for Engaging with Digital Infrastructure, The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory, 2025