DIGITAL

SOCIOLOGY
Dr. S Ghosh
 Terminological Turmoil …
 Cybersociology
 E-Sociology
 Sociology of Cyberspace
 Sociology of ICTs
 Sociology of Online Communities
 Internet Studies
 New Media Studies
 Sociology of the Internet
Digital sociology is all this and more!
‘digital sociology’? … dude…What is this?
Focus away from ‘the cyber’ to ‘the digital’ C--D
Responds to terminology of other sub-disciplines: digital humanities, digital
anthropology, digital cultures, digital geography
Incorporates all things digital.
Signals focus on ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘Web 3.0’ technologies.
 Beyond the digital to the sociological…
Life is digital → social life is digital → ‘the social’ is digital
Digital use/non-use involves all the usual suspects: gender, age, class, income, education,
race/ethnicity, culture, geographical location
Digital technology now imbricated into all social institutions: the economy, the mass media, the
workplace, education, the family, the healthcare system
Digital technology contribute to concepts of selfhood, identity and embodiment
Digital technology involved in new forms of power relations
Digital technology offer new and inventive ways of practicing and teaching sociology and
disseminating research
Academics are now ‘digitised’, whether we like it or not!
 Dimensions of digital sociology

We now cannot practice as sociologists without using,

theorising and researching digital technologies.
 Professional digital practice: using digital media tools for sociological work
 Sociological analyses of digital media use: researching how and why people use
digital tech
 Digital data analysis: using digital data for social research, either quantitative or
qualitative; and
 Critical digital sociology: undertaking reflexive and critical analysis of digital
media tech.
 Final thoughts …

Digital sociology offers valuable insights to and on our

thoroughly digitised world
Can provide a counter-foil and complement to reductionist tendencies of big
data and data science
A critical, reflexive and complex stance on the digital is sorely needed – we
can provide it
Helps us move from ‘dead sociology’ to ‘live sociology’