Handbook of Digital and Computational Research Methods: In the Social Sciences and Humanities

This comprehensive Handbook presents an examination of recent changes to data and methods in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Contributors explore this heterogeneous and multidisciplinary landscape while focussing on the cross-cutting discussions and infrastructures that underpin them. Drawing on epistemological and methodological perspectives, case studies reveal how the emergence of digital and computational methods has altered disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, media studies, psychology and history. Insights into core debates are provided, including the role of theory in empirical work, the hope for objectivity, and the divide between qualitative and quantitative methods. The Handbook critically discusses the risks and ethical complications accompanying the convergence of digital and computational methods, as well as in delegating analytical power to algorithmic systems. It also provides a unique tool-makers perspective on the institutional set-up around digital and computational methods labs within SSH. This Handbook is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the fields of information systems, knowledge management and research methods. It is also an essential resource for researchers and decision-makers in SSH looking to further their understanding of digital and computational research methods and their disciplinary implications.

Table of Contents:
Contents 1 After the trench wars: heterodox research practices in digital and computational SSH (Introduction to the Handbook of Digital and Computational Research Methods) 1 Anders Koed Madsen and Anders Kristian Munk PART I Disciplinary perspectives 2 Archaeology 19 Iza Romanowska 3 The digital historian’s craft 32 Martin Grandjean 4 Computational anthropology 49 Samantha Breslin and Kristoffer Albris 5 Economic sociology: Using agent-based modelling to study financial markets 66 Christian Borch and Nicholas Skar-Gislinge 6 Four guiding principles for rethinking organizational charts 81 Dario Rodighiero 7 The digital turn in food studies 96 Tanja Schneider 8 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in behavioural psychology for complex human-environment systems 113 Jens Koed Madsen 9 Situating digital data in media and communication research 130 Sharon Meraz 10 Objectivity in/through partial perspectives 151 Laura K. Nelson PART II EPISTEMIC TROUBLE 11 Bias in machine learning as a multi-dimensional problem 161 Mascha Kurpicz-Briki 12 Online groundedness 178 Richard Rogers 13 Theoretical heuristics in digital social research 191 Hjalmar Bang Carlsen 14 Beyond the quant and qual divide 202 David Moats 15 The vanishing micro/macro divide and the politics of computational interactionism 222 Tommaso Venturini 16 Gatekeeping: The case of digital archives 234 Johan Heinsen 17 Representation and visualization 246 Michele Mauri 18 Mapping with care: Data feminist principles for participatory visual practices 261 Gabriele Colombo and Sabine Niederer 19 Privacy in digital and computational SSH 275 Nicholas Proferes PART III MAKING THE INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES Introduction to Part III 20 Toolmaking is science by other means 295 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck 21 Meet the DCSSH toolmakers 308 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck 22 Why do DCSSH toolmakers make tools? 315 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck 23 The lifecyle of DC tools for SSH 326 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck 24 Valuing toolmaking in academia 340 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck 25 In defense of the researcher-toolmaker figure 351 Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique, Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck

About the Author :
Edited by Anders Koed Madsen, Professor of Data, Democracy and Digital Urbanism and Anders Kristian Munk,Professor of Computational Anthropology, Department of Technology, Management & Economics, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Review :
‘This Handbook provides a valuable overview of digital methods in the social sciences and humanities, and also shows methods in action, demonstrating to readers how computational methods can combine qualitative and quantitative approaches suited to research questions and contexts.’ ‘This is both an impressively broad Handbook and a reflective, original contribution to debates about digital and computational method. It can be both things at once because the book's methodological intervention — refusing oppositions between qualitative and quantitative, or empirical and hermeneutic approaches to social life — is part of the motivation for the breadth of its disciplinary scope. Scholars across the full range from history to psychology will find new insights here about the history and likely future of computational methods in their field.’