论文标题
社区作为一个模糊的操作员：认识论问题，以实现社区检测算法的关键启发式学
Community as a Vague Operator: Epistemological Questions for a Critical Heuristics of Community Detection Algorithms
论文作者
论文摘要
在本文中，我们旨在分析网络科学中的数字作为节点和边缘模式的性质和认知后果，称为“社区”。我们建议将这些模式描述为多面和矛盾的，我们建议将社区的概念描述为“模糊的操作员”，这是Susan Leigh Star对边界对象的概念的一种变体，并提出，构建不同描述模式的能力在某些寄存器中含糊不清，在另一些寄存器中既模糊，又是数字政治的核心，对数字政治和分析既是''Commenities of's Commenities of's Commenities of's Commenities of's Communications''is of's Communications''。用数学和软件研究从数学和软件研究中得出的术语来参与这些形成，从而可以更广泛地映射它们的形成。然后，在网络科学中解开不同的谱系，使我们能够将米歇尔·吉尔万（Michelle Girvan）和马克·纽曼（Mark Newman）在2002年推广的“社区”的创始说明进行环境化。我们认为，“社区”可以充当真正的抽象，以重塑社会关系的力量，例如在社交网站上产生回声室。为了重新设计社区检测的认识论术语，并提出了对模糊运营商的重新考虑，我们借鉴了网络科学文献中的辩论和命题，以想象一种“批判性启发式”，它具有偏见，认识论的谦卑，反思性和人为性。
In this article, we aim to analyse the nature and epistemic consequences of what figures in network science as patterns of nodes and edges called 'communities'. Tracing these patterns as multi-faceted and ambivalent, we propose to describe the concept of community as a 'vague operator', a variant of Susan Leigh Star's notion of the boundary object, and propose that the ability to construct different modes of description that are both vague in some registers and hyper-precise in others, is core both to digital politics and the analysis of 'communities'. Engaging with these formations in terms drawn from mathematics and software studies enables a wider mapping of their formation. Disentangling different lineages in network science then allows us to contextualise the founding account of 'community' popularised by Michelle Girvan and Mark Newman in 2002. After studying one particular community detection algorithm, the widely-used 'Louvain algorithm', we comment on controversies arising with some of their more ambiguous applications. We argue that 'community' can act as a real abstraction with the power to reshape social relations such as producing echo chambers in social networking sites. To rework the epistemological terms of community detection and propose a reconsideration of vague operators, we draw on debates and propositions within the literature of network science to imagine a 'critical heuristics' that embraces partiality, epistemic humbleness, reflexivity and artificiality.
