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Automating inequality : how high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor / Virginia Eubanks.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Closed Stacks HC 79 .P6 E89 2018
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Eubanks, Virginia, 1972- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Poor--Services for--United States--Data processing.
- Poor.
- Poverty--United States.
- Poverty.
- Public welfare--Law and legislation--United States.
- Public welfare.
- Internet--Social aspects--United States.
- Internet.
- Computers--Social aspects--United States.
- Computers.
- Public welfare--Law and legislation.
- Internet--Social aspects.
- Computers--Social aspects.
- United States.
- Physical Description:
- 260 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Other Title:
- How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, 2018.
- Summary:
- The state of Indiana denied one million applications for health care, food stamps, and cash benefits in three years - because a new computer system interpreted any application mistake as "failure to cooperate." In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision making in finance, employment, politics, health care, and human services has undergone revolutionay change. Today, automated systems control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on economic inequality and democracy in America. Full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, this deeply researched and passionate book could not be timelier. -- From dust jacket.
- Contents:
- Introduction: red flags
- From poorhouse to database
- Automating eligibility in the heartland
- High-tech homelessness in the City of Angels
- The Allegheny algorithm
- The digital poorhouse
- Conclusion: dismantling the digital poorhouse.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-251) and index.
- Local Notes:
- The Balch Ethnic Studies Collection.
- ISBN:
- 9781250074317
- 1250074312
- 1466885963
- 9781466885967
- 9781250215789
- 1250215781
- OCLC:
- 1013516195
- Publisher Number:
- 40027901725
- 99977598098
- Online:
- More Info
- More Info
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