Disenchanting Trust: Instrumental Reason, Algorithmic Governance, and China's Emerging Social Credit System

Abstract: Digital technologies have provided governments across the world with new tools of political and social control. The development of algorithmic governance in China is particularly alarming, where plans have been released to develop a digital Social Credit System (SCS). Still in an exploratory stage, the SCS, as a collection of national and local pilots, is framed officially as an all-encompassing project aimed at building trust in society through the regulation of both economic and social behaviors. Grounded in the case of China’s SCS, this article interrogates the application of algorithmic rating to expanding areas of everyday life through the lens of the Frankfurt School’s critique of instrumental reason. It explores how the SCS reduces the moral and relational dimension of trust in social interactions, and how algorithmic technologies, thriving on a moral economy characterized by impersonality, impede the formation of trust and trustworthiness as moral virtues. The algorithmic r

Standort
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
Umfang
Online-Ressource
Sprache
Englisch
Anmerkungen
Veröffentlichungsversion
begutachtet (peer reviewed)
In: Media and Communication ; 9 (2021) 2 ; 140-149

Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wo)
Mannheim
(wer)
SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.
(wann)
2021
Urheber
Zou, Sheng

DOI
10.17645/mac.v9i2.3806
URN
urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022101516572387440778
Rechteinformation
Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
Letzte Aktualisierung
15.08.2025, 07:34 MESZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Beteiligte

  • Zou, Sheng
  • SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.

Entstanden

  • 2021

Ähnliche Objekte (12)