Homo Computator: The Making of Computational Subjectivity through Coding

While the subject of computation is firmly situated in the domains of mathematics and computer science, scholars have often overlooked the human agents behind actual computational work. This thesis explores the human dimension of computation. Today, intelligent machines weave code into the fabric of our world – whether managing logistics or addressing the climate crisis, delivering healthcare or speculating in financial markets. The people who carry out this work have been known by various evolving titles: hackers, programmers, coders, and developers. Seen as anti-cultural disruptors in the 1980s, these ‘hacker’ bogeyman have ascended into the upper echelons of wealth and influence over time. Now high-flying ‘developers’, they are seen as inspirational and highly sought-after figures. This research redirects attention from the celebrated coding heroes to those typically deemed ‘unemployable’ – refugees, asylum seekers, low-income single parents, people with disabilities, and individuals facing mental health or addiction challenge – who, against all odds, become coders. Drawing on 15 months of fieldwork at a charitable coding school in London, this thesis aims to address the question: How does coding reshape our understanding of technology, work, and the human-machine relationship in a computational world? This thesis offers a mosaic of ethnographic reflections on code as more than just a skill; it is an ontological entity, a symbolic and cognitive tool for self-transformation and world-shaping. Learning to code is a process of augmenting the body and mind. This occurs both explicitly, such as in the (re)construction of socially acceptable bodies with the capacity for work and play, and implicitly, such as in the process of acquiring social capital and a new narrative of the self. This thesis unpacks these nuanced dimensions across five chapters on code as a transformative entity, the embodied and affective experiences of coding, and the reshaping of economic subjectivity. Through a journey of self-transformation, coders-in-training begin to see the universe itself as computable. Challenging the economic-anthropological norm of technology as a mere tool of production, this work dissects how people become homo computator. It reveals how, through coding, hope, fun, the possibility of revenge, transcendence, and even a touch of magic all ignite a yearning to break free from social constraints. Through the prism of coding, the thesis depicts a collective existence shaped by human–machine interactions, suggesting that the combined agency of humans and machines drives both individual and social transformations. Drawing on a cross-paradigmatic ethnographic approach, it urges the social sciences to move beyond conventional definitions and critically examine algorithms, code, and computability through an anthropological lens. In so doing, it emphasises the practical politics and responsibility of understanding computation in a multifaceted, human shaped context.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Zhan, Xin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sanchez, Andrew

• anthropology
• aspiration
• coding
• computation
• economic monility
• ethnography
• learning
• tech industry
• transformation
• work

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/5aac1194-3dc6-49f8-b3fc-ea57e01b7b8e/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.117046

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/382062