Abstract
This book explores exciting innovations in the field of digital social research. The growing significance of ‘the digital’ for contemporary social life is undeniable; nevertheless digital methods have yet to be fully accepted into mainstream social science. By presenting a range of work by social scientists from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, it is our aim to highlight digital methods as a valuable and increasingly integral part of the social research toolkit. They offer the chance to access, generate and analyse new kinds of data on the social world in novel ways and address new research questions, as well as providing different approaches to long-standing questions. In this collection, we define digital methods as the use of online and digital technologies to collect and analyse research data. Our concern is not only with research that explores online phenomena, but also with a broader interest in utilizing digital methods to engage with all aspects of contemporary social life.
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© 2016 Helene Snee, Christine Hine, Yvette Morey, Steven Roberts and Hayley Watson
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Snee, H., Hine, C., Morey, Y., Roberts, S., Watson, H. (2016). Digital Methods as Mainstream Methodology: An Introduction. In: Snee, H., Hine, C., Morey, Y., Roberts, S., Watson, H. (eds) Digital Methods for Social Science. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453662_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453662_1
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