M Zajko
Biographic Data
| ID | 70067 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Zajko |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Zajko |
| SIGNATURE | ZAJKO M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Alberta |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7804-4618 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A sociology without humans: Artificial intelligence as a threat to humanity, and sociology’s response
The growing deployment of ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) systems across society, and massive investments currently being made to develop systems capable of greater and greater agency, necessitates sociological reflection. Specifically, what do current shifts in automation mean for how we theorize social relations, and how should sociologists position themselves normatively? While the development of agential machines might be seen to validate ‘pos…
Cross-cultural challenges in generative AI: Addressing homophobia in diverse sociocultural contexts
Previous discussions have highlighted the need for generative AI tools to become more culturally sensitive, yet often neglect the complexities of handling content about marginalized groups, who are perceived differently across cultures and religions. Our study examined the responses of two generative AI systems to homophobic statements and explored how their outputs varied when different societal and religious context information about the user w…
Autocompleting inequality: Large language models and the “alignment problem”
The latest wave of AI hype has been driven by ‘generative AI’ systems exemplified by ChatGPT, which was created by OpenAI’s ‘fine-tuning’ of a large language model (LLM). This process involves using human labor to provide feedback on generative outputs in order to bring these into greater ‘alignment’ with ‘safety’. This article analyzes the fine-tuning of generative AI as a process of social ordering, beginning with the encoding of cultural dispo…
Translating Law and Code in Government: Algorithmic Decisions and Their Legal Effects in Canada
This article analyzes the translation of law into computer code and the use of automated decision-making systems in government to make legal distinctions. Specifically, how are algorithmic decisions tied to law, and what happens when legal effects are mediated through technologies? The sociology of translation and Bruno Latour's theory of law, as elaborated by Kyle McGee, provides the means to study associations between law and technology. I trac…
Automated Government Benefits and Welfare Surveillance
This article examines the “digital welfare state” historically, presently, and into the future, with a focus on what artificial intelligence means for welfare surveillance. Drawing on scholarship about the development of bureaucracy, the welfare state, and automation, as well as specific examples from the Netherlands, I argue that problems posed by artificial intelligence in public administration are often misplaced or misattributed and that the …
Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and social inequality: Sociological contributions to contemporary debates
Artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic systems have been criticized for perpetuating bias, unjust discrimination, and contributing to inequality. Artificial intelligence researchers have remained largely oblivious to existing scholarship on social inequality, but a growing number of sociologists are now addressing the social transformations brought about by AI. Where bias is typically presented as an undesirable characteristic that can be r…
Conservative AI and social inequality: Conceptualizing alternatives to bias through social theory
Security against Surveillance: IT Security as Resistance to Pervasive Surveillance
This paper examines Five Eyes surveillance programs as a threat to IT (Information Technology) security and IT security as resistance to these programs. I argue that the most significant of Snowden's disclosures have been the Five Eyes agencies’ systematic compromise of the technologies, networks, and standards in use within their own countries and abroad. Attacks on domestic infrastructure contradict the defensive posture of these agencies but a…
Internet Service Providers as Privacy Custodians
This article examines the role of internet service providers (ISPs) as guardians of personal information and protectors of privacy, with a particular focus on how telecom companies in Canada have historically negotiated these responsibilities. Communications intermediaries have long been expected to act as privacy custodians by their users, while simultaneously being subject to pressures to collect, utilize, and disclose personal information. As …
Telecom Responsibilization: Internet Governance, Surveillance, and New Roles for Intermediaries
This article foregrounds internet intermediaries as a class of actors central to many governance and surveillance strategies, and provides an overview of their emerging roles and responsibilities. While the growth of the internet has created challenges for state actors, state priorities have been unfolded onto the private institutions that provide many of the internet’s services. This article elaborates responsibilization strategies implicating i…
The Copyright Surveillance Industry
Creative works are now increasingly distributed as digital “content” through the internet, and copyright law has created powerful incentives to monitor and control these flows. This paper analyzes the surveillance industry that has emerged as a result. Copyright surveillance systems identify copyright infringement online and identify persons to hold responsible for infringing acts. These practices have raised fundamental questions about the natur…
Canada's cyber security and the changing threat landscape
Cyber security has become a major concern for nation states. This paper analyzes the Canadian discourse of cyber security and the development of new cyber threats. Cyber security discourse has so far been studied largely through its public pronouncements and policy documents, but this analysis also covers operational texts generated through Canada’s cyber security institutions. Echoing the Paris School’s critique of securitization, I argue that w…
Gillianrose, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. 3rd ed.London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2012, 408 p
The Shifting Politics of Climate Science
Space and Protest Policing at International Summits
Since the 1970s a growing body of literature has taken a 'geographic turn' and sought to incorporate the study of spatial factors into the social sciences. Building on this theoretical literature, this study undertakes a spatial analysis of the contentious politics that have become so closely and regularly linked to international summit diplomacy. The paper examines and compares the protests surrounding two international summits held in Canada: t…
Space and Protest Policing at International Summits
Since the 1970s a growing body of literature has taken a 'geographic turn' and sought to incorporate the study of spatial factors into the social sciences. Building on this theoretical literature, this study undertakes a spatial analysis of the contentious politics that have become so closely and regularly linked to international summit diplomacy. The paper examines and compares the protests surrounding two international summits held in Canada: t…
Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and social inequality: Sociological contributions to contemporary debates
Artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic systems have been criticized for perpetuating bias, unjust discrimination, and contributing to inequality. Artificial intelligence researchers have remained largely oblivious to existing scholarship on social inequality, but a growing number of sociologists are now addressing the social transformations brought about by AI. Where bias is typically presented as an undesirable characteristic that can be r…
Automated Government Benefits and Welfare Surveillance
This article examines the “digital welfare state” historically, presently, and into the future, with a focus on what artificial intelligence means for welfare surveillance. Drawing on scholarship about the development of bureaucracy, the welfare state, and automation, as well as specific examples from the Netherlands, I argue that problems posed by artificial intelligence in public administration are often misplaced or misattributed and that the …
Internet Service Providers as Privacy Custodians
This article examines the role of internet service providers (ISPs) as guardians of personal information and protectors of privacy, with a particular focus on how telecom companies in Canada have historically negotiated these responsibilities. Communications intermediaries have long been expected to act as privacy custodians by their users, while simultaneously being subject to pressures to collect, utilize, and disclose personal information. As …
Space and Protest Policing at International Summits
Since the 1970s a growing body of literature has taken a 'geographic turn' and sought to incorporate the study of spatial factors into the social sciences. Building on this theoretical literature, this study undertakes a spatial analysis of the contentious politics that have become so closely and regularly linked to international summit diplomacy. The paper examines and compares the protests surrounding two international summits held in Canada: t…
The Shifting Politics of Climate Science
Gillianrose, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. 3rd ed.London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2012, 408 p
The Copyright Surveillance Industry
Creative works are now increasingly distributed as digital “content” through the internet, and copyright law has created powerful incentives to monitor and control these flows. This paper analyzes the surveillance industry that has emerged as a result. Copyright surveillance systems identify copyright infringement online and identify persons to hold responsible for infringing acts. These practices have raised fundamental questions about the natur…
Canada's cyber security and the changing threat landscape
Cyber security has become a major concern for nation states. This paper analyzes the Canadian discourse of cyber security and the development of new cyber threats. Cyber security discourse has so far been studied largely through its public pronouncements and policy documents, but this analysis also covers operational texts generated through Canada’s cyber security institutions. Echoing the Paris School’s critique of securitization, I argue that w…
Telecom Responsibilization: Internet Governance, Surveillance, and New Roles for Intermediaries
This article foregrounds internet intermediaries as a class of actors central to many governance and surveillance strategies, and provides an overview of their emerging roles and responsibilities. While the growth of the internet has created challenges for state actors, state priorities have been unfolded onto the private institutions that provide many of the internet’s services. This article elaborates responsibilization strategies implicating i…
Security against Surveillance: IT Security as Resistance to Pervasive Surveillance
This paper examines Five Eyes surveillance programs as a threat to IT (Information Technology) security and IT security as resistance to these programs. I argue that the most significant of Snowden's disclosures have been the Five Eyes agencies’ systematic compromise of the technologies, networks, and standards in use within their own countries and abroad. Attacks on domestic infrastructure contradict the defensive posture of these agencies but a…
Internet Service Providers as Privacy Custodians
This article examines the role of internet service providers (ISPs) as guardians of personal information and protectors of privacy, with a particular focus on how telecom companies in Canada have historically negotiated these responsibilities. Communications intermediaries have long been expected to act as privacy custodians by their users, while simultaneously being subject to pressures to collect, utilize, and disclose personal information. As …
Conservative AI and social inequality: Conceptualizing alternatives to bias through social theory
Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and social inequality: Sociological contributions to contemporary debates
Artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic systems have been criticized for perpetuating bias, unjust discrimination, and contributing to inequality. Artificial intelligence researchers have remained largely oblivious to existing scholarship on social inequality, but a growing number of sociologists are now addressing the social transformations brought about by AI. Where bias is typically presented as an undesirable characteristic that can be r…
Automated Government Benefits and Welfare Surveillance
This article examines the “digital welfare state” historically, presently, and into the future, with a focus on what artificial intelligence means for welfare surveillance. Drawing on scholarship about the development of bureaucracy, the welfare state, and automation, as well as specific examples from the Netherlands, I argue that problems posed by artificial intelligence in public administration are often misplaced or misattributed and that the …
Translating Law and Code in Government: Algorithmic Decisions and Their Legal Effects in Canada
This article analyzes the translation of law into computer code and the use of automated decision-making systems in government to make legal distinctions. Specifically, how are algorithmic decisions tied to law, and what happens when legal effects are mediated through technologies? The sociology of translation and Bruno Latour's theory of law, as elaborated by Kyle McGee, provides the means to study associations between law and technology. I trac…
Cross-cultural challenges in generative AI: Addressing homophobia in diverse sociocultural contexts
Previous discussions have highlighted the need for generative AI tools to become more culturally sensitive, yet often neglect the complexities of handling content about marginalized groups, who are perceived differently across cultures and religions. Our study examined the responses of two generative AI systems to homophobic statements and explored how their outputs varied when different societal and religious context information about the user w…
Autocompleting inequality: Large language models and the “alignment problem”
The latest wave of AI hype has been driven by ‘generative AI’ systems exemplified by ChatGPT, which was created by OpenAI’s ‘fine-tuning’ of a large language model (LLM). This process involves using human labor to provide feedback on generative outputs in order to bring these into greater ‘alignment’ with ‘safety’. This article analyzes the fine-tuning of generative AI as a process of social ordering, beginning with the encoding of cultural dispo…
A sociology without humans: Artificial intelligence as a threat to humanity, and sociology’s response
The growing deployment of ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) systems across society, and massive investments currently being made to develop systems capable of greater and greater agency, necessitates sociological reflection. Specifically, what do current shifts in automation mean for how we theorize social relations, and how should sociologists position themselves normatively? While the development of agential machines might be seen to validate ‘pos…
Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Computer security (4 works) · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies (4 works)