Hopes and challenges of creating and using a smartphone application. Working on and working with a digital mobile tool in qualitative sociospatial research

Abstract

The article focuses on developing and using a mobile application in the research of spatial practices along the Polish-German border region. The goal is to broaden the frame of thinking about the use of mobile applications in social research and understand it as a network of human and non-human actors. Based on observations and interviews conducted both with the study participants using the application and ourselves as members of the research team, who developed the app, we will examine expectations and potentials regarding the use of this application. We explore how it shaped our relationships and contacts and the perception of the data collected, and we conclude by proposing a framework allowing to consider more factors in the development of the application to enhance efficiency and reliability and to see how it transforms the research process and its environment.