Social Theory and the Politics of Big Data and Method

Abstract

This article is an intervention in the debate on big data. It seeks to show, firstly, that behind the wager to make sociology more relevant to the digital there lies a coherent if essentially unstated vision and a whole stance which are more a symptom of the current world than a resolute endeavour to think that world through; hence the conclusion that the perspective prevailing in the debate lacks both the theoretical grip and the practical impulse to initiate a much needed renewal of social theory and sociology. Secondly, and more importantly, the article expounds an alternative view and shows by thus doing that other possibilities of engaging the digital can be pursued. The article is thus an invitation to widen the debate on big data and the digital and a call for a more combative social theory.

Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era

“…The lack of ontological clarity over definitions of Big Data has been criticized and different types of Big Data have been distinguished by Kitchin and McArdle (2016: 8) who argue that Big Data differ from small data with respect to velocity and exhaustivity. Sociologists are concerned with the political economy of Big Data or ‘knowing capitalism’ (Frade, 2016; Savage and Burrows, 2007). ‘Knowing capitalism’ or ‘surveillance capitalism’ (Zuboff, 2019) is based on the commodification of personal information, notably exhaust data, that is created by ‘prosumers’ (Frade, 2016) – producers and consumers who access and produce information in daily digital transactions.…”

“…Sociologists are concerned with the political economy of Big Data or ‘knowing capitalism’ (Frade, 2016; Savage and Burrows, 2007). ‘Knowing capitalism’ or ‘surveillance capitalism’ (Zuboff, 2019) is based on the commodification of personal information, notably exhaust data, that is created by ‘prosumers’ (Frade, 2016) – producers and consumers who access and produce information in daily digital transactions. While private enterprises have always conducted market research and product development, the availability and analysis of personal information in surveillance capitalism is accelerated.…”

Digital data and management accounting: why we need to rethink research methods

“…Scholarly claims must align with norms of legitimacy in accounting research. Deviating from these can derail investigations if established research robustness preconditions are sidestepped (Creswell 2003;Frade 2016;McFarland and McFarland 2015). But there must also be recognition that approaches to data, method and theoris-ing can be altered and expanded as researchers engage with novel bases of empiricism.…”

Old media and new opportunities for a computational social science on PCST

“…Additionally, they tend to appeal to different types of users and thus reduce their representativity; moreover the habits of their users change over time thanks to naturalisation and collective reflection processes that modify them (today, for example, a growing awareness on data processing issues is redefining what goes through the web, as evidenced by the birth and expansion of the so-called "deep-web"). It should also be added that excessive adherence to the present can be a problem for social research, which must maintain a necessary distance from the phenomena it intends to analyse, even if "detachment" must be cleverly balanced with an equally necessary "involvement", as suggested by Elias [2007] and recently highlighted by Frade [2016]. Finally, one should not fall into the trap of technological neutrality: the web is not a simple substrate on which contents and interactions travel, but it equally contributes to modelling both of them.…”