Studying digital practices is far from new as “the digital” is “embodied, embedded and everyday” (Hine 2015), and have been so far many years now. A lot of researchers and students are now days familiar with digital elements in their research, and an increasing number of methodology books are published about conducting qualitative research in a digital age. In the light of that, what's left to discuss?
We live in times of transformations, and with new technological developments and devices, the emergence of new platforms, and world events, the conditions for research and researchers are constantly changing. There is therefore a need to keep the discussion going and to review, update and/or invent new methodological approaches and methods to meet the need necessary to continue conducting research in an adequate and sustainable way.
In a series of Humlab Talks researchers from the humanities and social science will discuss and give examples of novel, or updated, approaches they have used to qualitatively examine digital practices, platforms and ways of living with and in relation to new technological developments and devices.
14 September: Prof. Christine Hine, Dept. of Sociology, Univ. of Surrey “Exploring the silences of smart care: autoethnographic and infrastructural approaches“. (digital event)
9 November: Ida Tolgensbakk, senior curator at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History "Doing old-fashioned (field)work in new social spaces"
21 November: Tim Highfield, University of Sheffield: "Studying platforms when platforms restrict access: Methods for critical digital media studies"
