Department Seminar: Algorithmic Constructions of Risk – Anticipating Uncertain Futures in Child Protection Services

Helene Friis Ratner (ph.d.) is Associate Professor of digital and datafied governance technologies at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. Helene studies how data-driven technologies shape welfare institutions and education. She is currently co-PI of the 10-year research project “Algorithms, Data and Democracy” (VELUX Foundations, 2021-31) and PI of “Data Visions: Teaching in the age of digital data visualizations” (IRFD, 2022-25). Her research is published in journals such as Big Data & Society, Science, Technology & Human Values, and Organization Studies.

In 2023 Ratner published the paper "Algorithmic constructions of risk: Anticipating uncertain futures in child protection services" which examines how predictive algorithms construct risk by calculating and anticipating children’s uncertain futures. Theoretically, the authors analyze algorithmic risk construction by attending to (a) the problematizations justifying algorithmic prediction, (b) their underpinning data infrastructures, and (c) the configurations of agencies across humans and machines. Empirically, the paper examines two experiments in Danish child protection services that developed algorithmic models to predict children’s maltreatment. The analysis highlights how algorithmic predictions can create different notions of risk. The first case used predictive algorithms to supplement human risk assessments with data from child protection services, while the second case aimed to detect risk early by constructing parents as risk factors, requiring data from other welfare sectors. By comparing these cases, the authors highlight two distinct risk constructions: one that uses algorithmic prediction to manage uncertainty and another that seeks to eliminate undesired futures by preempting risk. These different constructions have implications for how the present is viewed as a moment of intervention and for how families are constructed as “risk objects.”

All members of the department and research staff from across the faculty are invited to attend. Please navigate the calendar on the Department and Sociology's website to find upcoming Department Seminars.