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Interface methods : renegotiating relations between digital social research, STS and sociology
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Marres, Noortje and Gerlitz, Carolin (2016) Interface methods : renegotiating relations between digital social research, STS and sociology. The Sociological Review, 64 (1). pp. 21-46. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.12314 ISSN 0038-0261.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12314
Abstract
This paper introduces a distinctive approach to methods development in digital social research called ‘interface methods’. We begin by discussing various methodological confluences between digital media, social studies of science and technology (STS) and sociology. Some authors have posited significant overlap between, on the one hand, sociological and STS concepts, and on the other hand, the ontologies of digital media. Others have emphasized the significant differences between prominent methods built into digital media and those of STS and sociology. This paper advocates a third approach, one that (a) highlights the dynamism and relative under-determinacy of digital methods, and (b) affirms that multiple methodological traditions intersect in digital devices and research. We argue that these two circumstances enable a distinctive approach to methodology in digital social research – thinking methods as ‘interface methods’ – and the paper contextualizes this approach in two different ways. First, we show how the proliferation of online data tools or ‘digital analytics’ opens up distinctive opportunities for critical and creative engagement with methods development at the intersection of sociology, STS and digital research. Second, we discuss a digital research project in which we investigated a specific ‘interface method’, namely co-occurrence analysis. In this digital pilot study we implemented this method in a critical and creative way to analyse and visualize ‘issue dynamics’ in the area of climate change on Twitter. We evaluate this project in the light of our principal objective, which was to test the possibilities for the modification of methods through experimental implementation and interfacing of various methodological traditions. To conclude, we discuss a major obstacle to the development of ‘interface methods’: digital media are marked by particular quantitative dynamics that seem adverse to some of the methodological commitments of sociology and STS. To address this, we argue in favour of a methodological approach in digital social research that affirms its maladjustment to the research methods that are prevalent in the medium.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics Q Science > QA Mathematics T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies | ||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Social sciences--Research--Data processing, Digital media , Sociology---Research--Data processing, Science--Social aspects--Research--Data processing, Technology--Social aspects--Research--Data processing | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Sociological Review | ||||||||||
Publisher: | Blackwell | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 0038-0261 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | February 2016 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 64 | ||||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 21-46 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/1467-954X.12314 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 15 December 2015 | ||||||||||
Funder: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC) | ||||||||||
Grant number: | ES/J010103/1 |
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