scholarly journals The People’s Algorithms: Social Credits and the Rise of China’s Big (Br)other

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Tong Lam
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Central Planning ◽  
Credit System ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals

AbstractAround the turn of the twentieth century, Chinese intellectuals and political leaders dreamed of a modern nation inhabited by politically aware citizens. For them, this involved the production and circulation of social facts enabling citizens to make sound judgements. This theory of making citizens continued in the socialist era (1949–1978). Yet, it has changed profoundly with the advance of state-guided neoliberalism. Instead of creating enlightened citizens, the new paradigm of governance aims at producing an ecology in which citizens are expected to align their desires and aspirations with the state-sanctioned social order. Focusing on China’s emerging social credit system, this essay illustrates how central planning and neoliberal belief have come together to construct a new social and economic order using numbers, algorithms and credit rating.

The gamification of trust: the case of China’s “social credit”

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahy Ramadan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Rating System ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Chinese Business ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
New Business

Purpose China is establishing a social credit rating system with the aim to score the trust level of citizens. The scores will be based on an integrated database that includes a vast range of information sources, rating aspects like professional conduct, corruption, type of products bought, peers’ own scores and tax evasion. While this form of gamification is expected to have dire consequences on brands and consumers alike, the literature in that particular area of interest remains non-existent. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework is suggested that highlights early on the risks and implications on brands and companies operating in that particular upcoming landscape. Findings The gamification of trust that the social credit system focuses on presents potential risks on brand and consumer relationships. This in turn will affect brand sustainability vis-à-vis the expected drastic changes in the Chinese business landscape. This study suggests the strategies to follow which will be of high interest to companies, consumers, as well as to the Chinese authorities during and after implementation stage. Originality/value This paper is amongst the first to discuss the potential effects of the Chinese social credit rating system on brands. The conceptual framework fills a sizeable gap in the literature and pioneers the discussion on potential dilemmas brands will be faced with within this new business landscape.

scholarly journals Give us a little social credit: to design or to discover personal ratings in the era of Big Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Devereaux ◽  
Linan Peng
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Credit Ratings ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The State ◽  
State Council ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Personal Credit ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Financial Credit

AbstractIn 2014, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party announced the institution of a social credit system by 2020, a follow-up to a similar statement on the creation of a social credit system issued by the State Council in 2007. Social credit ratings of the type being developed by the State Council in partnership with Chinese companies go beyond existing financial credit ratings in an attempt to project less-tangible personal characteristics like trustworthiness, criminal tendencies, and group loyalty onto a single scale. The emergence of personal credit ratings is enabled by Big Data, automated decision-making processes, machine learning, and facial recognition technology. It is quite likely that various kinds of personal and social credit ratings shall become reality in the near future. We explore China's version of its social credit system so far, compare the welfare and epistemological qualities of an ecology of personal ratings emanating from polycentric sources versus a social credit rating, and discuss whether a social credit system in an ideologically driven state is less a tool to maximize social welfare through trustworthiness provision and more a method of preventing and punishing deviance from a set of party-held ideological values.

Debt as Choice, Debt as Structure

Debtor Nation ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
American Consumer ◽  
The Creation ◽  
To Receive

This epilogue argues that the dependence on credit was the creation, intentional and unintentional, of the sometimes unlikely choices of government, business, and consumers. Over the first half of the twentieth century, government and business fashioned a new legal network of credit institutions and offered most American consumers a choice of whether or not to use this debt in their daily lives. By the end of the century, however, the choice to opt out of the credit system no longer remained. Three corporations assigned every American a credit rating. Their opinions governed consumers' ability to rent and to buy housing, to afford an education, to shop for clothes and food, to commute to work, and even to receive medical care—that is, the basic materials of daily life. Even to get a job, a worker needed good credit. Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to use credit ceased to exist for the American consumer.

scholarly journals Chinese social credit system: key features and possibility of using in Ukraine

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Vadym Shved
Keyword(s):  
Credit Rating ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
Basic Mechanism ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Electronic Government ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Features

The article considers the key features of the social credit (rating) system implementation and functioning, which is the main tool for digitalization of Chinese society, and in the future is considered by the Chinese authorities as a basic mechanism of electronic government. The historical retrospective of the phenomenon of social rating emergence and development, which was later transformed into social credit, is presented. Attention is paid to the differences in the implementation and functioning of the social credit system, depending on regional characteristics. The participants in the social credit system and the main mechanisms for collecting information for the social credit level formation, including through the mandatory use of specially designed ID-cards, and recently the almost widespread use of the verification for a person by face, have been determined. Despite the position of the Chinese authorities, according to which the use of the social credit system is successful, a list of shortcomings that are now inherent in this system, both of an author’s and of an expert nature, is given. The practice of implementation the state digital eco-environment «Diia» (State and I), which is a key tool for building a digital state, as well as the functional content of the «Diia» eco-environment (service) and its main components, is analyzed. The basic shortcomings that are now inherent in the service are determined, in particular, the key tool in the fight against coronavirus – «Diia. Vdoma», as well as the controversial character of the proposed innovation for the business environment «Diia. City». The features of the declared novel of the relationship between the citizen and state ‒ the concept of «paperless», are studied. The issue of regulation of the «Diia» eco-environment functioning is raised in the context of the legislative introduction of the concept of «paperless» announced on September 1, 2021. The conclusion is substantiated that the basic mechanisms are already being introduced in Ukraine, which form the basis for the Chinese social credit system functioning, in particular, through the tools of citizensʼ verification. On the basis of the analysis carried out, proposals are made to improve the functionality of the «Diia» eco-environment.

INNOVATIVE SOCIETY: A SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM IN CHINA

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-59
Author(s):  
Weichzhen` Gao
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Educational Mission ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Road Project ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
The One ◽  
And Behavior

The basic principles of SCS implementation are as follows: Formation of sustainable social structure and its operational management; Monitoring and correction of social transformations and behavior of the general population: transparency as a major factor in the life of an innovative society; Stimulating competition as a motivation for success. Due to the transparency of social life, different patterns of behavior in different conditions are published in the information space of the society. Accordingly, actionable life scenarios are made available to the general public, which is fulfilling an educational mission regarding adaptation mechanisms in an innovative society; the SCS system is a significant component of the national strategy of integration and consolidation of the Chinese innovation society; carrying out softpolicy foreign policy: The positive experience of the Chinese innovation society in implementing SCS is a prerequisite for expanding its area of application in Asian, African and Latin American countries, especially the countries participating in the One Belt One Road project. SCS covers all spheres of social life of the modern Chinese citizen, forms a sustainable form of accountability to the society for the content and flow of their daily activities, aspirations and preferences.

scholarly journals From Bulletin Boards to Big Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-62
Author(s):  
Christian Göbel ◽  
Jie Li
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Feedback Systems ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Bulletin Boards ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Set Up

Why do Chinese governments at various levels set up public complaint websites where citizen petitions and government responses can be reviewed by the general public? We argue that it is the result of two factors: strong signals sent by the central government to improve governance, and the availability of new technologies to promote policy innovation. To impress their superiors, local officials adopted newly available commercial technology to innovate existing citizen feedback systems, which presented a developmental trajectory from “openness,” “integration,” to “big data-driven prediction.” Drawing on policy documents and interviews with local politicians and administrators, we provide a chronological perspective of how technical development, central government’s signals and local decision-making have interacted in the past two decades to bring forth today’s public complaint websites. The contingent and non-teleological nature of this development can also be applied to other policies such as the social credit system.

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