Karen Levy
Biographic Data
| ID | 186503 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen Levy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen |
| FAMILY NAME | Levy |
| SIGNATURE | LEVY K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0968-9401 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 161 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Variability of enteric pathogen infections by season and meteorological conditions in a low-income, urban setting in Mozambique
Enteric pathogen transmission is influenced by seasonality and meteorological conditions, yet pathogen-specific dynamics are not well understood. We investigated the relationships between (1) season, (2) heavy rainfall events, and (3) temperature and enteric pathogen infections among 12-month-old children in a low-income, urban setting. We analyzed household data and stool samples from 630 participants enrolled in the PAASIM Study in Beira, Mozam…
Goffmanian “Cooling” in Technology-Mediated Frontline Enforcement Work
Frontline workers enforce rules in their interactions with customers, patients, and everyday people. AI and other emerging digital technologies increasingly mediate these interactions, but sociologists have often overlooked how technology affects relationships between enforcer and enforcee. We argue that centering Erving Goffman’s ideas of “cooling the mark out”—ameliorating tense interactions after a loss of face, status, or self-image—can illum…
Multilevel factors drive child exposure to enteric pathogens in animal feces: A qualitative study in northwestern coastal Ecuador
Exposure to animal feces and associated enteric pathogens poses significant risks to child health. However, public health strategies to mitigate enteric infections among children largely aim to reduce exposure to human feces, overlooking transmission pathways related to animal feces. In this study we examine if and how children are exposed to enteric pathogens in animal feces in northwestern coastal Ecuador. We conducted qualitative interviews wi…
Post-traumatic stress disorder, food insecurity, and social capital after the 2017 coastal El Niño flooding among mothers from Piura, Peru: A mixed method study
In order to understand the impacts in the post-disaster scenario of the 2017 El Niño events in the Piura region-Peru, we examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), food insecurity (FI), and social capital (SC) across three-time points in mothers in highly affected areas. In the Piura, Castilla, and Catacaos districts, we studied mothers combining mixed-method assessments at three (June-July 2017), eight and 12 months after the flooding. Each…
The development and validation of a survey to measure fecal-oral child exposure to zoonotic enteropathogens: The Fecez Enteropathogens Index
Child exposure to animal feces and associated enteropathogens contribute to a significant burden of disease in low- and middle-income countries. However, there are no standardized, validated survey-based approaches to enable accurate assessment of child exposure to zoonotic enteropathogens. We developed and validated a survey-based measure of exposure, the fecal-oral child exposure to zoonotic enteropathogens Index (the FECEZ Enteropathogens Inde…
De Paris à Delhi en passant par Mexico: Les grands programmes d’accession à la propriété pour les classes moyennes en périphéries métropolitaines
L’objectif de cet article est d’appréhender les changements sociospatiaux à l’œuvre dans les espaces périphériques de grandes métropoles, au Nord comme au Sud, à l’occasion de la sortie de terre d’une offre immobilière parfois massive et relativement uniformisée de logements destinés aux classes moyennes inférieures. En partie négligée pas les pouvoirs publics, la question des trajectoires de ces nouveaux ensembles résidentiels, de leur construct…
From Paris to Delhi via Mexico City: Major Home Ownership Programmes for the Middle Classes in Metropolitan Suburbs
The aim of this article is to understand the sociospatial changes in process in the peripheral areas of large metropolises, in the North and in the South, as a result of the emergence of a new and relatively uniform housing supply for the lower middle classes. Partly neglected by the public authorities, the question of the trajectories of these new residential complexes, from their construction to their integration into the city through their set…
Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance
A behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of life Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the day-to-day independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Yet these workers increasingly find themselves under many watchful eyes. Data D…
Correlates of maternal depression, anxiety and functioning across an urban-rural gradient in northern Ecuador
Maternal depression remains under characterised in many low- and middle-income countries, especially in rural settings. We aimed to describe maternal depression and anxiety symptoms in rural and urban communities in northern Ecuador and to identify socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with these symptoms. Data from 508 mothers participating in a longitudinal cohort study were included. Depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed usi…
Surveillance deputies: When ordinary people surveil for the state
The state has long relied on ordinary civilians to do surveillance work, but recent advances in networked technologies are expanding mechanisms for surveillance and social control. In this article, we analyze the phenomenon in which private individuals conduct surveillance on behalf of the state, often using private sector technologies to do so. We develop the concept ofsurveillance deputiesto describe when ordinary people, rather than state acto…
In the shadow of tower planters. “Affordable” housing buildings in the periphery of Indian cities
En Inde, plus de 377 millions d’habitants habitent désormais en ville. Malgré un déficit de logements et la permanence de taudis, les transformations de l’habitat dans les agglomérations indiennes restent extrêmement dynamiques, interdépendantes des transformations sociétales qui traversent le pays. Cet article s’intéresse au développement d’une offre de logement dit “abordable” qui se matérialise par la construction de tours de logements dans le…
Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability
Automated decision making and predictive analytics through artificial intelligence, in combination with rapid progress in technologies such as sensor technology and robotics are likely to change the way individuals, communities, governments and private actors perceive and respond to climate and ecological change. Methods based on various forms of artificial intelligence are already today being applied in a number of research fields related to cli…
Algorithms and Decision-Making in the Public Sector
This article surveys the use of algorithmic systems to support decision-making in the public sector. Governments adopt, procure, and use algorithmic systems to support their functions within several contexts -- including criminal justice, education, and benefits provision -- with important consequences for accountability, privacy, social inequity, and public participation in decision-making. We explore the social implications of municipal algorit…
Mitigating bias in algorithmic hiring: Evaluating Claims and Practices
There has been rapidly growing interest in the use of algorithms in hiring, especially as a means to address or mitigate bias. Yet, to date, little is known about how these methods are used in practice. How are algorithmic assessments built, validated, and examined for bias? In this work, we document and analyze the claims and practices of companies offering algorithms for employment assessment. In particular, we identify vendors of algorithmic p…
Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration
How predictable are life trajectories? We investigated this question with a scientific mass collaboration using the common task method; 160 teams built predictive models for six life outcomes using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a high-quality birth cohort study. Despite using a rich dataset and applying machine-learning methods optimized for prediction, the best predictions were not very accurate and were only slightly…
Afrodescendientes e indígenas vulnerables al cambio climático: Desacuerdos frente a medidas preventivas estatales ecuatorianas
El presente artículo analiza la situación de la provincia de Esmeraldas, ubicada al noroeste del Ecuador, y poblada por afrodescendientes e indígenas chachi. Esta provincia es una de las más afectadas por la alta frecuencia e intensidad de inundaciones, las cuales ocasionan innumerables pérdidas materiales, económicas y humanas. El objetivo de este estudio es reconocer la situación de las mencionadas poblaciones, identificar sus prácticas y repre…
AI-Mediated Communication: Definition, Research Agenda, and Ethical Considerations
We define Artificial Intelligence-Mediated Communication (AI-MC) as interpersonal communication in which an intelligent agent operates on behalf of a communicator by modifying, augmenting, or generating messages to accomplish communication goals. The recent advent of AI-MC raises new questions about how technology may shape human communication and requires re-evaluation – and potentially expansion – of many of Computer-Mediated Communication’s (C…
Privacy, Ethics, and Data Access: A Case Study of the Fragile Families Challenge
Stewards of social data face a fundamental tension. On one hand, they want to make their data accessible to as many researchers as possible to facilitate new discoveries. At the same time, they want to restrict access to their data as much as possible to protect the people represented in the data. In this article, we provide a case study addressing this common tension in an uncommon setting: the Fragile Families Challenge, a scientific mass colla…
Visual Data and the Law
Visual data are transforming the documentation of activities across many legal domains. Visual data can incriminate or exonerate; they can shape and reshape public opinion. Visual evidence can legitimize certain accounts of events while calling others into question. The proliferation of visual data creates challenges for the law at multiple points of entry: recording, distribution or disclosure, redaction or deletion, or use as evidence. This sym…
The surveillant consumer
We argue that modern technical and social infrastructures of surveillance have brought a novel subject position to prominence: the surveillant consumer. Surveillance has become a normalized mode of interpersonal relation that urges the person as consumer to manage others around her using surveillant products and services. We explore two configurations of this model: the consumer as observer, effectuated through products for use in the supervision…
Book-Smart, Not Street-Smart: Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts and The Social Workings of Law
This paper critiques blockchain-based “smart contracts,” which aim to automatically and securely execute obligations without reliance on a centralized enforcement authority. Though smart contracts do have some features that might serve the goals of social justice and fairness, I suggest that they are based on a thin conception of what law does, and how it does it. Smart contracts focus on the technical form of contract to the exclusion of the soc…
Untangling the Impacts of Climate Change on Waterborne Diseases: A Systematic Review of Relationships between Diarrheal Diseases and Temperature, Rainfall, Flooding, and Drought
Digital surveillance in the hypermasculine workplace
New workplace technologies are often met with resistance from workers, particularly to the degree that they challenge traditional workplace norms and practices. These conflicts may be all the more
When open data is a Trojan Horse: The weaponization of transparency in science and governance
Openness and transparency are becoming hallmarks of responsible data practice in science and governance. Concerns about data falsification, erroneous analysis, and misleading presentation of research results have recently strengthened the call for new procedures that ensure public accountability for data-driven decisions. Though we generally count ourselves in favor of increased transparency in data practice, this Commentary highlights a caveat. …
The user as network
The user has become central to the way technology is conceptualized, designed, and studied in sociotechnical research and human-computer interaction; recently, non-users have also become productive foci of scholarly analysis. This paper argues that a focus on individualized users and non-users is incomplete, and conflates multiple modes of complex relation among people, institutions, and technologies. Rather than the use/non-use conception, I arg…
AI-Mediated Communication: Definition, Research Agenda, and Ethical Considerations
We define Artificial Intelligence-Mediated Communication (AI-MC) as interpersonal communication in which an intelligent agent operates on behalf of a communicator by modifying, augmenting, or generating messages to accomplish communication goals. The recent advent of AI-MC raises new questions about how technology may shape human communication and requires re-evaluation – and potentially expansion – of many of Computer-Mediated Communication’s (C…
The Contexts of Control: Information, Power, and Truck-Driving Work
This article examines the implications of electronic monitoring systems for organizational information flows and worker control, in the context of the U.S. trucking industry. Truckers, a spatially dispersed group of workers with a traditionally independent culture and a high degree of autonomy, are increasingly subjected to performance monitoring via fleet management systems that record and transmit fine-grained data about their location and beha…
Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability
Automated decision making and predictive analytics through artificial intelligence, in combination with rapid progress in technologies such as sensor technology and robotics are likely to change the way individuals, communities, governments and private actors perceive and respond to climate and ecological change. Methods based on various forms of artificial intelligence are already today being applied in a number of research fields related to cli…
Driving Regulation: Using Topic Models to Examine Political Contention in the U.S. Trucking Industry
Public comments submitted during agency rulemakings can provide rich insight into stakeholders’ viewpoints around contentious political issues but have been largely untapped as a data source by social scientists. This is in part due to the lack of access to comments in machine-readable formats and in part due to the difficulty in analyzing large corpora of textual data. However, new online repositories and analytic methodologies are beginning to …
Algorithms and Decision-Making in the Public Sector
This article surveys the use of algorithmic systems to support decision-making in the public sector. Governments adopt, procure, and use algorithmic systems to support their functions within several contexts -- including criminal justice, education, and benefits provision -- with important consequences for accountability, privacy, social inequity, and public participation in decision-making. We explore the social implications of municipal algorit…
Surveillance deputies: When ordinary people surveil for the state
The state has long relied on ordinary civilians to do surveillance work, but recent advances in networked technologies are expanding mechanisms for surveillance and social control. In this article, we analyze the phenomenon in which private individuals conduct surveillance on behalf of the state, often using private sector technologies to do so. We develop the concept ofsurveillance deputiesto describe when ordinary people, rather than state acto…
Visual Data and the Law
Visual data are transforming the documentation of activities across many legal domains. Visual data can incriminate or exonerate; they can shape and reshape public opinion. Visual evidence can legitimize certain accounts of events while calling others into question. The proliferation of visual data creates challenges for the law at multiple points of entry: recording, distribution or disclosure, redaction or deletion, or use as evidence. This sym…
When open data is a Trojan Horse: The weaponization of transparency in science and governance
Openness and transparency are becoming hallmarks of responsible data practice in science and governance. Concerns about data falsification, erroneous analysis, and misleading presentation of research results have recently strengthened the call for new procedures that ensure public accountability for data-driven decisions. Though we generally count ourselves in favor of increased transparency in data practice, this Commentary highlights a caveat. …
Privacy, Ethics, and Data Access: A Case Study of the Fragile Families Challenge
Stewards of social data face a fundamental tension. On one hand, they want to make their data accessible to as many researchers as possible to facilitate new discoveries. At the same time, they want to restrict access to their data as much as possible to protect the people represented in the data. In this article, we provide a case study addressing this common tension in an uncommon setting: the Fragile Families Challenge, a scientific mass colla…
The surveillant consumer
We argue that modern technical and social infrastructures of surveillance have brought a novel subject position to prominence: the surveillant consumer. Surveillance has become a normalized mode of interpersonal relation that urges the person as consumer to manage others around her using surveillant products and services. We explore two configurations of this model: the consumer as observer, effectuated through products for use in the supervision…
Digital surveillance in the hypermasculine workplace
New workplace technologies are often met with resistance from workers, particularly to the degree that they challenge traditional workplace norms and practices. These conflicts may be all the more
Neglected Consequences: Role of Introduced Aquatic Species in the Spread of Infectious Diseases
Driving Regulation: Using Topic Models to Examine Political Contention in the U.S. Trucking Industry
Public comments submitted during agency rulemakings can provide rich insight into stakeholders’ viewpoints around contentious political issues but have been largely untapped as a data source by social scientists. This is in part due to the lack of access to comments in machine-readable formats and in part due to the difficulty in analyzing large corpora of textual data. However, new online repositories and analytic methodologies are beginning to …
Contaminación ambiental, variabilidad climática y cambio climático: Una revisión del impacto en la salud de la población peruana
This article is a review of the pollution of water, air and the effect of climate change on the health of the Peruvian population. A major air pollutant is particulate matter less than 2.5 μ (PM 2.5). In Lima, 2,300 premature deaths annually are attributable to this pollutant. Another problem is household air pollution by using stoves burning biomass fuels, where excessive indoor exposure to PM 2.5 inside the household is responsible for approxim…
The user as network
The user has become central to the way technology is conceptualized, designed, and studied in sociotechnical research and human-computer interaction; recently, non-users have also become productive foci of scholarly analysis. This paper argues that a focus on individualized users and non-users is incomplete, and conflates multiple modes of complex relation among people, institutions, and technologies. Rather than the use/non-use conception, I arg…
The Contexts of Control: Information, Power, and Truck-Driving Work
This article examines the implications of electronic monitoring systems for organizational information flows and worker control, in the context of the U.S. trucking industry. Truckers, a spatially dispersed group of workers with a traditionally independent culture and a high degree of autonomy, are increasingly subjected to performance monitoring via fleet management systems that record and transmit fine-grained data about their location and beha…
Untangling the Impacts of Climate Change on Waterborne Diseases: A Systematic Review of Relationships between Diarrheal Diseases and Temperature, Rainfall, Flooding, and Drought
Digital surveillance in the hypermasculine workplace
New workplace technologies are often met with resistance from workers, particularly to the degree that they challenge traditional workplace norms and practices. These conflicts may be all the more
When open data is a Trojan Horse: The weaponization of transparency in science and governance
Openness and transparency are becoming hallmarks of responsible data practice in science and governance. Concerns about data falsification, erroneous analysis, and misleading presentation of research results have recently strengthened the call for new procedures that ensure public accountability for data-driven decisions. Though we generally count ourselves in favor of increased transparency in data practice, this Commentary highlights a caveat. …
Book-Smart, Not Street-Smart: Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts and The Social Workings of Law
This paper critiques blockchain-based “smart contracts,” which aim to automatically and securely execute obligations without reliance on a centralized enforcement authority. Though smart contracts do have some features that might serve the goals of social justice and fairness, I suggest that they are based on a thin conception of what law does, and how it does it. Smart contracts focus on the technical form of contract to the exclusion of the soc…
Visual Data and the Law
Visual data are transforming the documentation of activities across many legal domains. Visual data can incriminate or exonerate; they can shape and reshape public opinion. Visual evidence can legitimize certain accounts of events while calling others into question. The proliferation of visual data creates challenges for the law at multiple points of entry: recording, distribution or disclosure, redaction or deletion, or use as evidence. This sym…
The surveillant consumer
We argue that modern technical and social infrastructures of surveillance have brought a novel subject position to prominence: the surveillant consumer. Surveillance has become a normalized mode of interpersonal relation that urges the person as consumer to manage others around her using surveillant products and services. We explore two configurations of this model: the consumer as observer, effectuated through products for use in the supervision…
Afrodescendientes e indígenas vulnerables al cambio climático: Desacuerdos frente a medidas preventivas estatales ecuatorianas
El presente artículo analiza la situación de la provincia de Esmeraldas, ubicada al noroeste del Ecuador, y poblada por afrodescendientes e indígenas chachi. Esta provincia es una de las más afectadas por la alta frecuencia e intensidad de inundaciones, las cuales ocasionan innumerables pérdidas materiales, económicas y humanas. El objetivo de este estudio es reconocer la situación de las mencionadas poblaciones, identificar sus prácticas y repre…
AI-Mediated Communication: Definition, Research Agenda, and Ethical Considerations
We define Artificial Intelligence-Mediated Communication (AI-MC) as interpersonal communication in which an intelligent agent operates on behalf of a communicator by modifying, augmenting, or generating messages to accomplish communication goals. The recent advent of AI-MC raises new questions about how technology may shape human communication and requires re-evaluation – and potentially expansion – of many of Computer-Mediated Communication’s (C…
Privacy, Ethics, and Data Access: A Case Study of the Fragile Families Challenge
Stewards of social data face a fundamental tension. On one hand, they want to make their data accessible to as many researchers as possible to facilitate new discoveries. At the same time, they want to restrict access to their data as much as possible to protect the people represented in the data. In this article, we provide a case study addressing this common tension in an uncommon setting: the Fragile Families Challenge, a scientific mass colla…
Mitigating bias in algorithmic hiring: Evaluating Claims and Practices
There has been rapidly growing interest in the use of algorithms in hiring, especially as a means to address or mitigate bias. Yet, to date, little is known about how these methods are used in practice. How are algorithmic assessments built, validated, and examined for bias? In this work, we document and analyze the claims and practices of companies offering algorithms for employment assessment. In particular, we identify vendors of algorithmic p…
Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration
How predictable are life trajectories? We investigated this question with a scientific mass collaboration using the common task method; 160 teams built predictive models for six life outcomes using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a high-quality birth cohort study. Despite using a rich dataset and applying machine-learning methods optimized for prediction, the best predictions were not very accurate and were only slightly…
In the shadow of tower planters. “Affordable” housing buildings in the periphery of Indian cities
En Inde, plus de 377 millions d’habitants habitent désormais en ville. Malgré un déficit de logements et la permanence de taudis, les transformations de l’habitat dans les agglomérations indiennes restent extrêmement dynamiques, interdépendantes des transformations sociétales qui traversent le pays. Cet article s’intéresse au développement d’une offre de logement dit “abordable” qui se matérialise par la construction de tours de logements dans le…
Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability
Automated decision making and predictive analytics through artificial intelligence, in combination with rapid progress in technologies such as sensor technology and robotics are likely to change the way individuals, communities, governments and private actors perceive and respond to climate and ecological change. Methods based on various forms of artificial intelligence are already today being applied in a number of research fields related to cli…
Algorithms and Decision-Making in the Public Sector
This article surveys the use of algorithmic systems to support decision-making in the public sector. Governments adopt, procure, and use algorithmic systems to support their functions within several contexts -- including criminal justice, education, and benefits provision -- with important consequences for accountability, privacy, social inequity, and public participation in decision-making. We explore the social implications of municipal algorit…
De Paris à Delhi en passant par Mexico: Les grands programmes d’accession à la propriété pour les classes moyennes en périphéries métropolitaines
L’objectif de cet article est d’appréhender les changements sociospatiaux à l’œuvre dans les espaces périphériques de grandes métropoles, au Nord comme au Sud, à l’occasion de la sortie de terre d’une offre immobilière parfois massive et relativement uniformisée de logements destinés aux classes moyennes inférieures. En partie négligée pas les pouvoirs publics, la question des trajectoires de ces nouveaux ensembles résidentiels, de leur construct…
From Paris to Delhi via Mexico City: Major Home Ownership Programmes for the Middle Classes in Metropolitan Suburbs
The aim of this article is to understand the sociospatial changes in process in the peripheral areas of large metropolises, in the North and in the South, as a result of the emergence of a new and relatively uniform housing supply for the lower middle classes. Partly neglected by the public authorities, the question of the trajectories of these new residential complexes, from their construction to their integration into the city through their set…
Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance
A behind-the-scenes look at how digital surveillance is affecting the trucking way of life Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the day-to-day independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Yet these workers increasingly find themselves under many watchful eyes. Data D…
Correlates of maternal depression, anxiety and functioning across an urban-rural gradient in northern Ecuador
Maternal depression remains under characterised in many low- and middle-income countries, especially in rural settings. We aimed to describe maternal depression and anxiety symptoms in rural and urban communities in northern Ecuador and to identify socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with these symptoms. Data from 508 mothers participating in a longitudinal cohort study were included. Depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed usi…
Surveillance deputies: When ordinary people surveil for the state
The state has long relied on ordinary civilians to do surveillance work, but recent advances in networked technologies are expanding mechanisms for surveillance and social control. In this article, we analyze the phenomenon in which private individuals conduct surveillance on behalf of the state, often using private sector technologies to do so. We develop the concept ofsurveillance deputiesto describe when ordinary people, rather than state acto…
Multilevel factors drive child exposure to enteric pathogens in animal feces: A qualitative study in northwestern coastal Ecuador
Exposure to animal feces and associated enteric pathogens poses significant risks to child health. However, public health strategies to mitigate enteric infections among children largely aim to reduce exposure to human feces, overlooking transmission pathways related to animal feces. In this study we examine if and how children are exposed to enteric pathogens in animal feces in northwestern coastal Ecuador. We conducted qualitative interviews wi…
Computer Science (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Geography (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Digital Economy and Work Transformation (5 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (5 works) · Law (5 works)