Russian Sociology in the Context of Society Digitalization: Results of a Corpus Analysis of Scientific Texts

Abstract

Using the analysis of a corpus of texts from eight leading Russian sociological journals, the article examines the impact of the digitalization of society on sociology in 2000-2021. Frequency analysis of 13.8 thousand scientific texts tracked the introduction of concepts related to digitalization into scientific circulation. The article reveals the differences between the journals, due to their editorial policy in the selection of articles. Through content analysis of texts, the author studied the experience of using digital social platforms as a source of data and an object of reflection. The text shows that they are being used more and more over time, and since 2019, one in five publications mentions digital platforms. The study confirmed that due to the introduction of new digital technologies, the frequency and complexity of the software tools used by sociologists is increasing. Since 2015, there has been an increase in the number of studies whose authors develop their own algorithms for data collection and analysis. The identified trends are likely to continue in the future, as all the indicators considered show a steady increase over time. In the conclusions of the article, the author formulates the prospects for studying the patterns of development of sociological science using the methods of corpus linguistics.