Module 04 of 6

Digital Society, Algorithms and Identity

Causal Layered AnalysisSat 7 Nov 2026Provisional date

How algorithms and platforms shape who we are and how we see the world.

Draft, to be confirmed by Dr. John.

What you’ll do.

Take a headline about a feed and strip it down through four layers.
Separate the system from the worldview that makes it look normal.
Reach the myth underneath, and say it out loud.

Algorithms
Identity
Platforms

The method

Causal Layered Analysis

A headline is the surface of something much deeper. Underneath it are the systems that produced it, underneath those the worldview that makes those systems seem normal, and underneath that a myth or metaphor nobody ever says out loud. Digging down through all four layers gets you somewhere an argument about the headline never will.

Dig down from the headline. Each layer is slower to change and more powerful.

Try it on your own issue

Litany: What is being reported?Systemic causes: What structures produce it?Worldview: What makes those structures seem normal?Myth or metaphor: What deep story sits underneath?

Method source: Sohail Inayatullah, Causal Layered Analysis: Poststructuralism as Method, Futures (1998)