David Moats
Biographic Data
| ID | 79662 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Moats |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Moats |
| SIGNATURE | MOATS D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Linköping University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9622-9915 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Meeting the machines half-way: Testing LLMs for qualitative coding of values in texts
This article reports a small-scale experiment comparing human and Large Language Model (LLM) performance on a difficult qualitative coding task: assigning values to short text snippets. When annotators compared human and model outputs, they consistently preferred the human annotations. However, agreement among human coders was low. To explain this contradiction, we conducted follow-up interviews inspired by Cicourel’s work. The interviews reveale…
Making problems: Interdisciplinary collaboration and AI ethics
Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist world
Valuable actions and actionable values: Tinkering with principles and practices in AI ethics
What does it mean to 'put principles into practice'? As machine learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence are given increasing control over our lives (delivering credit scores and welfare risk assessments and monitoring borders with facial recognition), public, private and civil society organisations have proliferated numerous guidelines foregrounding different ethical principles (e.g. - fairness, accountability, transparency) meant to ensu…
Sorting a public? Using quali-quantitative methods to interrogate the role of algorithms in digital democracy platforms
Following concerns about social media’s role in politics (fostering polarization and spreading disinformation), many activists and civic hackers have developed alternative digital democracy platforms for both deliberation and the representation of public opinion. But how are we to study the role of these platforms, and in particular, their algorithms in the development of issues and the publics that gather around them? This article employs a simp…
Questionable devices: Applying a large language model to deliberate carbon removal
This paper presents a device-centred approach to deliberation, developed in deliberative workshops appraising methods for removing carbon dioxide from the air. Our approach involved deploying the Large Language Model application ChatGPT (sometimes termed “generative AI”) to elicit questions and generate texts about carbon removal. We develop the notion of the “questionable” device to foreground the informational unruliness ChatGPT introduced into…
Democratic Situations
Sustainability) Research Group.She is a science and technology studies scholar and geographer interested in the relationships between science, democracy and the environment, and particularly
The Imposter as Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
The figure of the imposter stirs a captivating combination of emotions, from intrigue to suspicion and horror. But what insights can these troublesome figures provide into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge? Beginning with a critical overview of previous uses of the imposter in social sciences and humanities, this volume explores this question through a diverse range of empirical cases, including click farms, magicians…
The Imposter as Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Edited by expert scholars, this volume explores the 'imposter' through empirical cases, including click farms, bikers, business leaders and fraudulent scientists, providing insights into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge.
Imposter As Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Imposter As Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Rethinking the ‘Great Divide’
It is often claimed that the rise of so called ‘big data’ and computationally advanced methods may exacerbate tensions between disciplines like data science and anthropology. This paper is an attempt to reflect on these possible tensions and their resolution, empirically. It contributes to a growing body of literature which observes interdisciplinary collabrations around new methods and digital infrastructures in practice but argues that many exi…
From media technologies to mediated events: A different settlement between media studies and science and technology studies
There have been many recent attempts to bring insights from science and technology studies (STS) into media disciplines, many of which associate this work with materiality and technology, while existing media theories are used to analyse the domain of media content and political economy. While this is a reasonable settlement, in this paper I will suggest an alternative arrangement based around controversies. Controversies, and related empirical o…
Following the Fukushima Disaster on (and against) Wikipedia: A Methodological Note about STS Research and Online Platforms
Science and technology studies is famous for questioning conceptual and material boundaries by following controversies that cut across them. However, it has recently been argued that in research involving online platforms (Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), there are also more practical boundaries to negotiate that are created by the variable availability, visibility, and structuring of data. In this paper, I highlight a potential tension betwe…
In Search of a Problem: Mapping Controversies over NHS (England) Patient Data with Digital Tools
There is a long history in science and technology studies (STS) of tracking problematic objects, such as controversies, matters of concern, and issues, using various digital tools. But what happens when public problems do not play out in these familiar ways? In this paper, we will think through the methodological implications of studying "problems" in relation to recent events surrounding the sharing of patient data in the National Health Service…
You Social Scientists Love Mind Games: Experimenting in the "divide" between data science and critical algorithm studies
In recent years, many qualitative sociologists, anthropologists, and social theorists have critiqued the use of algorithms and other automated processes involved in data science on both epistemological and political grounds. Yet, it has proven difficult to bring these important insights into the practice of data science itself. We suggest that part of this problem has to do with under-examined or unacknowledged assumptions about the relationship …
Quali-quantitative methods beyond networks: Studying information diffusion on Twitter with the Modulation Sequencer
Although the rapid growth of digital data and computationally advanced methods in the social sciences has in many ways exacerbated tensions between the so-called 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' approaches, it has also been provocatively argued that the ubiquity of digital data, particularly online data, finally allows for the reconciliation of these two opposing research traditions. Indeed, a growing number of 'qualitatively' inclined researcher…
Of Stories and Numbers: Rethinking the Settlement between Anthropology and Metrics in Global Health
For years, a growing number of qualitative researchers have been writing about the metrics, algorithms and quantitative measurement systems which increasingly dominate our lives (Espeland and Saude
Mapping Controversies with Social Media: The Case for Symmetry
This article assesses the usefulness for social media research of controversy analysis, an approach developed in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and related fields. We propose that this approach can help to address an important methodological problem in social media research, namely, the tension between social media as resource for social research and as an empirical object in its own right. Initially developed for analyzing interactions bet…
Insect Media: Archaeology of Animals and Technology
Civil Unions in Vermont: Public Reason Improvised
On December 20, 1999, the news appeared on our computer screens at the Rutland Herald that the Vermont Supreme Court had ruled in favor of six gay and lesbian plaintiffs who had sued for the right to marry. The case was Baker v. State of Vermont, and the court's decision had immediately apparent, far-reaching political ramifications.In 2001 he won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials he wrote for the Herald on the passage of legislation …
You Social Scientists Love Mind Games: Experimenting in the "divide" between data science and critical algorithm studies
In recent years, many qualitative sociologists, anthropologists, and social theorists have critiqued the use of algorithms and other automated processes involved in data science on both epistemological and political grounds. Yet, it has proven difficult to bring these important insights into the practice of data science itself. We suggest that part of this problem has to do with under-examined or unacknowledged assumptions about the relationship …
Mapping Controversies with Social Media: The Case for Symmetry
This article assesses the usefulness for social media research of controversy analysis, an approach developed in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and related fields. We propose that this approach can help to address an important methodological problem in social media research, namely, the tension between social media as resource for social research and as an empirical object in its own right. Initially developed for analyzing interactions bet…
Quali-quantitative methods beyond networks: Studying information diffusion on Twitter with the Modulation Sequencer
Although the rapid growth of digital data and computationally advanced methods in the social sciences has in many ways exacerbated tensions between the so-called 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' approaches, it has also been provocatively argued that the ubiquity of digital data, particularly online data, finally allows for the reconciliation of these two opposing research traditions. Indeed, a growing number of 'qualitatively' inclined researcher…
Of Stories and Numbers: Rethinking the Settlement between Anthropology and Metrics in Global Health
For years, a growing number of qualitative researchers have been writing about the metrics, algorithms and quantitative measurement systems which increasingly dominate our lives (Espeland and Saude
Democratic Situations
Sustainability) Research Group.She is a science and technology studies scholar and geographer interested in the relationships between science, democracy and the environment, and particularly
In Search of a Problem: Mapping Controversies over NHS (England) Patient Data with Digital Tools
There is a long history in science and technology studies (STS) of tracking problematic objects, such as controversies, matters of concern, and issues, using various digital tools. But what happens when public problems do not play out in these familiar ways? In this paper, we will think through the methodological implications of studying "problems" in relation to recent events surrounding the sharing of patient data in the National Health Service…
Questionable devices: Applying a large language model to deliberate carbon removal
This paper presents a device-centred approach to deliberation, developed in deliberative workshops appraising methods for removing carbon dioxide from the air. Our approach involved deploying the Large Language Model application ChatGPT (sometimes termed “generative AI”) to elicit questions and generate texts about carbon removal. We develop the notion of the “questionable” device to foreground the informational unruliness ChatGPT introduced into…
Following the Fukushima Disaster on (and against) Wikipedia: A Methodological Note about STS Research and Online Platforms
Science and technology studies is famous for questioning conceptual and material boundaries by following controversies that cut across them. However, it has recently been argued that in research involving online platforms (Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), there are also more practical boundaries to negotiate that are created by the variable availability, visibility, and structuring of data. In this paper, I highlight a potential tension betwe…
Civil Unions in Vermont: Public Reason Improvised
On December 20, 1999, the news appeared on our computer screens at the Rutland Herald that the Vermont Supreme Court had ruled in favor of six gay and lesbian plaintiffs who had sued for the right to marry. The case was Baker v. State of Vermont, and the court's decision had immediately apparent, far-reaching political ramifications.In 2001 he won the Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials he wrote for the Herald on the passage of legislation …
Insect Media: Archaeology of Animals and Technology
Mapping Controversies with Social Media: The Case for Symmetry
This article assesses the usefulness for social media research of controversy analysis, an approach developed in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and related fields. We propose that this approach can help to address an important methodological problem in social media research, namely, the tension between social media as resource for social research and as an empirical object in its own right. Initially developed for analyzing interactions bet…
Of Stories and Numbers: Rethinking the Settlement between Anthropology and Metrics in Global Health
For years, a growing number of qualitative researchers have been writing about the metrics, algorithms and quantitative measurement systems which increasingly dominate our lives (Espeland and Saude
Quali-quantitative methods beyond networks: Studying information diffusion on Twitter with the Modulation Sequencer
Although the rapid growth of digital data and computationally advanced methods in the social sciences has in many ways exacerbated tensions between the so-called 'quantitative' and 'qualitative' approaches, it has also been provocatively argued that the ubiquity of digital data, particularly online data, finally allows for the reconciliation of these two opposing research traditions. Indeed, a growing number of 'qualitatively' inclined researcher…
From media technologies to mediated events: A different settlement between media studies and science and technology studies
There have been many recent attempts to bring insights from science and technology studies (STS) into media disciplines, many of which associate this work with materiality and technology, while existing media theories are used to analyse the domain of media content and political economy. While this is a reasonable settlement, in this paper I will suggest an alternative arrangement based around controversies. Controversies, and related empirical o…
Following the Fukushima Disaster on (and against) Wikipedia: A Methodological Note about STS Research and Online Platforms
Science and technology studies is famous for questioning conceptual and material boundaries by following controversies that cut across them. However, it has recently been argued that in research involving online platforms (Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), there are also more practical boundaries to negotiate that are created by the variable availability, visibility, and structuring of data. In this paper, I highlight a potential tension betwe…
In Search of a Problem: Mapping Controversies over NHS (England) Patient Data with Digital Tools
There is a long history in science and technology studies (STS) of tracking problematic objects, such as controversies, matters of concern, and issues, using various digital tools. But what happens when public problems do not play out in these familiar ways? In this paper, we will think through the methodological implications of studying "problems" in relation to recent events surrounding the sharing of patient data in the National Health Service…
You Social Scientists Love Mind Games: Experimenting in the "divide" between data science and critical algorithm studies
In recent years, many qualitative sociologists, anthropologists, and social theorists have critiqued the use of algorithms and other automated processes involved in data science on both epistemological and political grounds. Yet, it has proven difficult to bring these important insights into the practice of data science itself. We suggest that part of this problem has to do with under-examined or unacknowledged assumptions about the relationship …
Rethinking the ‘Great Divide’
It is often claimed that the rise of so called ‘big data’ and computationally advanced methods may exacerbate tensions between disciplines like data science and anthropology. This paper is an attempt to reflect on these possible tensions and their resolution, empirically. It contributes to a growing body of literature which observes interdisciplinary collabrations around new methods and digital infrastructures in practice but argues that many exi…
The Imposter as Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
The figure of the imposter stirs a captivating combination of emotions, from intrigue to suspicion and horror. But what insights can these troublesome figures provide into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge? Beginning with a critical overview of previous uses of the imposter in social sciences and humanities, this volume explores this question through a diverse range of empirical cases, including click farms, magicians…
The Imposter as Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Edited by expert scholars, this volume explores the 'imposter' through empirical cases, including click farms, bikers, business leaders and fraudulent scientists, providing insights into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge.
Imposter As Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Imposter As Social Theory: Thinking with Gatecrashers, Cheats and Charlatans
Democratic Situations
Sustainability) Research Group.She is a science and technology studies scholar and geographer interested in the relationships between science, democracy and the environment, and particularly
Sorting a public? Using quali-quantitative methods to interrogate the role of algorithms in digital democracy platforms
Following concerns about social media’s role in politics (fostering polarization and spreading disinformation), many activists and civic hackers have developed alternative digital democracy platforms for both deliberation and the representation of public opinion. But how are we to study the role of these platforms, and in particular, their algorithms in the development of issues and the publics that gather around them? This article employs a simp…
Questionable devices: Applying a large language model to deliberate carbon removal
This paper presents a device-centred approach to deliberation, developed in deliberative workshops appraising methods for removing carbon dioxide from the air. Our approach involved deploying the Large Language Model application ChatGPT (sometimes termed “generative AI”) to elicit questions and generate texts about carbon removal. We develop the notion of the “questionable” device to foreground the informational unruliness ChatGPT introduced into…
Making problems: Interdisciplinary collaboration and AI ethics
Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist world
Valuable actions and actionable values: Tinkering with principles and practices in AI ethics
What does it mean to 'put principles into practice'? As machine learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence are given increasing control over our lives (delivering credit scores and welfare risk assessments and monitoring borders with facial recognition), public, private and civil society organisations have proliferated numerous guidelines foregrounding different ethical principles (e.g. - fairness, accountability, transparency) meant to ensu…
Meeting the machines half-way: Testing LLMs for qualitative coding of values in texts
This article reports a small-scale experiment comparing human and Large Language Model (LLM) performance on a difficult qualitative coding task: assigning values to short text snippets. When annotators compared human and model outputs, they consistently preferred the human annotations. However, agreement among human coders was low. To explain this contradiction, we conducted follow-up interviews inspired by Cicourel’s work. The interviews reveale…
Sociology (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Data science (7 works) · Social science (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Computational and Text Analysis Methods (4 works) · Engineering (4 works)