Digital Sociology Research Articles

Digital sociology and new opportunities for social and educational rehabilitation of disabled people

Based on the conducted sociological research and using modern methodological approaches of digital sociology, the feasibility of developing institutional conditions for improving the educational rehabilitation of disabled people by means of modern Internet technologies has been justified. Examples of the development of analogical problems in the works of domestic and foreign authors have been given. The possibilities of scientific and methodological support of social experiments on the development and implementation of educational Internet communications to overcome the disability of disabled people using the Arsenal of digital sociology have been described separately. The data on the attitude of disabled people to higher education in the system of their rehabilitation and life activity, with the identification of social groups with positive, uncertain and negative attitudes with a predominant positive attitude to the possibility of educational rehabilitation have been provided. The educational needs of people with disabilities in various areas have been described, their quantitative characteristics with the definition of priorities and areas of education that are not relevant for people with disabilities have been presented. A significant place in the article has been given to the possibilities of involving disabled people in the process of developing educational programs and in research activities, both in terms of the availability of willing people among them, and the use of various forms of their integration into real research projects as part of temporary creative teams. The conditions for the implementation of scientific support for the development of training programs in the Internet space by conducting their practical testing on the example of the Zagorsk experiment have been characterized separately. Attention to supporting individual research projects of people with disabilities in the course of higher education has been paid, ways to help them collect experimental material have been substantiated. Separately, the role and place of joint forms of scientific activity of disabled people, teachers and students in the performance of state tasks have been shown. Taking into account the important role of social inclusion of disabled people in Internet communications, the prevalence of creating accounts in the Internet information and communication network and using various Internet resources among disabled people and family members has been separately reflected.

Methodology for cognition of digital society

Digital sociology is a computational social science that uses modern information systems and technologies, has already formed. But the conflict with traditional sociology and its research methods has not yet been resolved. This conflict can be overcome if we remember that there is a common goal – the knowledge of the phenomena and processes of social life, which is primary in relation to the methods to be agreed upon. Digital transformation of sociology is essential, since 1) traditional sociological methods do not solve the problem of providing voluminous, reliable empirical data qualitatively and in a short time; 2) the transition from contact research methods to unobtrusive ones is in demand. The adaptation of four modern information technologies-cloud computing, big data, the Internet of things and artificial intelligence – for the purposes of sociology provides a qualitative transition in the methodology of knowledge of the digital society. Cloud computing provide researchers with tools, big data – research materials, Internet of things technology aimed at collecting indicators (receiving signals) in large volume, in real time, as direct, not indirect evidence of human behavior. The development of “artificial intelligence” technology expands the possibility of receiving processed signals of the quality of the social system without building a preliminary hypothesis, in a short time and on a large volume of processed data. Digital transformation of sociology does not mean abandoning the use of traditional methods of sociological analysis, but it involves expanding the competence of a sociologist, which requires a revision of University curricula. At the same time, combining the functions of an expert on the subject (sociologist) and data analyst in one specialist is assessed as unpromising, it is proposed to combine their professional competencies in working on unified research projects.

Antagonismos discursivos nas hashtags #marqueteirosdojair e #bolsolão no Twitter nas eleições de 2018 no Brasil: contribuições da análise de redes sociais à sociologia digital

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a formação de antagonismos discursivos nas hashtags #bolsolão e #marqueteirosdojair, no contexto polarizado das Eleições de 2018 no Brasil. Em contribuição aos desafios teóricometodológicos da Sociologia Digital, partimos de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, articulando a Teoria do Discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe à Análise de Redes Sociais na internet. A partir disso, coletamos um total de 26.548 tweets da API do Twitter através do software NodeXL Pro. Assim, investigamos as duas hashtags selecionadas através de uma análise de contingência, conforme as métricas da modularidade e do grau de intermediação. Desse modo, verificamos quais os sentidos encadeados na formação das duas hashtags, descrevendo como estão articulados segundo as lógicas de equivalência e de diferença. Concluímos que a nossa proposta teórico-metodológica permite observar a polarização política como um fenômeno dinâmico, contingente e contraditório no social, associado à emergência de antagonismos discursivos.

Viés algorítmico – um balanço provisório

Este artigo se insere no campo da Sociologia Digital e objetiva realizar um balanço bibliográfico sobre viés algorítmico (algorithmic bias) nas Humanidades, observando quais definições, causas, diagnósticos e perspectivas são apresentadas para o fenômeno. Tomando por base artigos presentes nos principais portais de periódicos nas línguas inglesa, espanhola e portuguesa, foram encontrados majoritariamente artigos de cunho ensaístico, produzidos no Norte Global, com baixa penetração da temática nas literaturas em espanhol e português. Percebe-se certa indefinição sobre o termo, ora tratado como sinônimo de discriminação, ora como sua causa. Como principais fontes de viés, foram identificadas a construção de ferramentas e os dados de treinamento. Esses fatores ressaltam a necessidade de aumentar a transparência no desenvolvimento de algoritmos; ademais, sugerem tendência analítica de enfatizar o caráter subjetivo do viés algorítmico. Esses achados salientam a importância de integrar à análise elementos que transcendem a subjetividade desses atores.

The role of digital platforms in the transfer of knowledge and qualificationism: A study of digital sociology

Indonesia has entered the digital era. Many sectors have been affected by the development of existing digital devices and platforms, including the higher education sector. Sociologically, this influence must be anticipated because it will influence the transfer of knowledge and the phenomenon of qualification. If the transfer of knowledge is ineffective, the quality of the individual produced by the higher education level may be incompetent. This study aimed to dissect the role and attention on the transfer of knowledge that occurs, along with its impact during the digital era. This study used a qualitative approach with descriptive methods through literature study techniques to synthesize existing empirical facts. The primary empirical data analyzed was the results of research on the transfer of specific knowledge and the phenomenon of qualificationism. The researcher found that digitalization influenced online learning and publication that were inter-related, despite differences in access, skills and benefits for individuals. On the other hand, the quality of higher education faced challenges because there was tacit knowledge that must be fulfilled and the phenomenon of qualification as the impact of higher education growth.

Digital Leisure in Later Life: Facebook Use among Romanian Senior Citizens

Set against a double background, the sociology of ageing and the digital sociology, and using concepts and theories from the field of leisure studies, the present study approached Romanian elderly (60+) users of Facebook in an exploratory qualitative research, combining content analysis, interviews and participative observation. The main objectives are to explore the elderly online behaviour in terms of preferences, distributed content, as well as motivations, perceived benefits and challenges related to their online life, and also to investigate the connection between their digital selves and their offline identities. The paper also discusses the measure in which social media is understood by Romanian senior citizens as a digital leisure, beyond the instrumental role of connecting the lonely elders with their families and friends. The study reveals the tension between the attraction that Facebook exerts on Romanian seniors and the anxiety it generates. It highlights also that for Romanian elders, Facebook provides a fragile digital leisure, as they see their time spent on the social network as rather shallow and hedonistic. Moreover, seeing Facebook as a territory dominated by younger generations contributes to digital exclusion, sometimes along with a feeling of inadequacy and vulnerability.

Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era

This article outlines and contextualizes the development of digital sociology as an introduction to this e-special issue, charting the development of the field through the pages of the journal, Sociology. In doing so, the article sketches key contours of this rich and varied terrain, accenting how technological innovation has permeated the domains of politics, culture and society. Of central concern has been the intellectual origins of ‘digital sociology’. While first coined in 2009, the article highlights a longer history, noting the continued resonance of modernity’s currents of categorization, ordering and rationality while recognizing the crucial shifts brought by digitally mediated life. The article then discusses landmark articles contributing to the development of digital sociology, beginning with interventions seeking to theorize digital society. We then turn to articles focusing on methodological questions before addressing the digital turn in selected areas of enduring sociological concern including: work and organizations; inequality; migration; activism; communities; emotions; and everyday life. The article concludes with a series of observations regarding potential futures of digital sociological analyses.

DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY IN MODERN SCIENCE

The arguments in favor of the development of digital sociology at the present stage of development of science in the field of sociology have been presented, its benefit in the field of economic and political development of modern society has been substantiated. The interpretations of the subject of study of digital sociology have been given, social processes and phenomena have been highlighted, the study of which is especially important from the point of view of digital sociology. The importance of Internet sociology in the framework of General sociological research has been revealed. One of the main methods of sociological research – observation, in the context of sociology of the Internet has been considered. Two approaches in the sociology of the Internet for solving ethical problems and the resulting problems of reliability and quality of the collected data have been emphasized.

Social Institute of tutoring in educational rehabilitation of disabled people based on Internet technologies

The relevance of the study of the needs of using the capabilities of the Institute of tutoring in meeting the rehabilitation educational needs of disabled people in a digital society has been justified. The results of a review of sources and legal norms, which reflect various aspects of the problem have been provided, the concepts of “tutor” and “Internet technologies” in relation to the educational rehabilitation of disabled people have been clarified. The scientific and practical potential of digital sociology in the scientific and methodological support of the development of the Institute of tutoring in the system of rehabilitation of disabled people based on digital technologies and Internet resources has been substantiated.The term of the sociological concept of “digital social inclusion of education” has been introduced, the characteristics ofits components have been given. The results of the analysis of primary sociological data obtained during the implementation of the author’s research project on the educational needs ofdisabled people in Moscow and the expert assessment of ways to improve the institutions of their educational rehabilitation have been presented. An interpretation of the significance of the category of disabled people who can successfully master higher education © The Author(s), 2020. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). programs, as well as participate in scientific activities has been given. Based on an expert survey with the help of rank indicators, the place of the Institute of tutoring in ensuring the effective use of Internet technologies by disabled people in training has been shown. Measures for the development of tutoring forms of support for the educational rehabilitation of disabled people among other forms – career guidance testing, programs for targeted study, involvement in research, labor market research, and presentations of University representatives to disabled people and their families have been described in detail.The article includes a description of the necessary competencies of tutors, as well as the possibility of using Internet technologies to help people with disabilities in learning: e-learning, digital learning design, global digital educational and communication platforms, digital translators. It has been concluded that it is necessary to make more full use of the opportunities of digital sociology in promoting further institutionalization of tutoring support for educational rehabilitation of disabled people.

Webometric as diagnostic tools of digital sociology: contents, purpose, usage experience

The essence of Webometrics as a sociological method of collecting primary material by studying the content of content, services and the convenience of technological solutions for accessing it by users has been revealed in the article. A justification for the need to develop digital technologies for social diagnostics using webometric indicators has been provided. Based on the analysis of scientific sources on the problem, the significant potential of Webometrics in the study of various aspects of scientific, educational, and political activities, as well as its universal character as a methodological tool have been shown.A refined concept of Webometrics as a method of collecting primary sociological data has been given, the possibility of using it to study Internet content has been described. The rules and conditions for effective use of Webometrics have been substantiated, based on the usage of content analysis methods and procedures for the development of its forms; to include usability and visibility in the analysis of technological characteristics of Internet portals; to make the research parameters used reliable by separating them from official documents of state policy and corporate strategies; to combine traditional methods of fixing primary data and computer algorithms. A specific webometric technique has been revealed in detail, which implies fixing the formal status of the Internet source under study, the content parameters of information representation of information about the implementation of state policy on the example of working with young people, the availability of services, as well as indicators of the site’s technology and ease of access to it by the population. An example of obtaining data on the basis of Webometrics, as well as its interpretation has been given.Based on the data obtained, an analysis of the combination of traditional and modern interactive services, which are currently presented on official websites, has been made, the shortcomings of the existing situation for effective information policy in the field of work with young people have been shown. It has been concluded about the relevance of webometric methods and the great potential for their development within the framework of digital sociology.

Digital Technologies in Social Sciences: Subject and Method of Digital Sociology

The article is devoted to the development of a new direction of research in the social sciences — digital sociology. This direction is connected with the use of new digital technologies for the study of social reality. The article discusses the problems of perception of digital sociology by the sociological community, discusses the use of technologies such as big data and data mining in sociological research.

Digital sociology: capabilities, risks and prospects

The subject of this article is theoretical provisions of the new scientific field – digital sociology, developed by the leading foreign and Russian experts in the area of sociology, anthropology, public administration, as well as political, social and information technologies (K. Michael, R. Clark, M. Fourcade, K. Healy, L. Manovich, L. Sloan, J. Morgan). Along with theoretical positions, the author examines the results of empirical research in the area of digital sociology, acquired by the representatives of government structures, corporations, medical institutions, and secret services (K. Garattini, E. M. Chereshnev, G. Greenwald, and C. Sunstein). Leaning on the texts that are unfamiliar to Russian audience, the authors explore the theoretical positions of digital sociology, determine its object field, methodological capabilities, identify risks and boundaries, as well as outline the prospects for future development. The article analyzes the current trends in the area of cyborgization and chipping of humans, and assesses the risks of utilization of digital tools to controlling citizens in real and virtual environments. It is demonstrated that the interface and software of modern technologies pattern and determine reality. The authors reveal the methods used by a number of secret services in foreign countries that control and manipulate discussions in the social networks. The approaches of the theoreticians of sociology – J. Bentham, M. Foucault, and B. Latour are being adapted to the context of research. The authors also assess methodological traps related to big data analysis, and propose the ways for increasing validity of the results of research, obtained using the methods of digital sociology.

Social networks and biographical method

The concept of storytelling as one of the modern varieties of the biographical method has been considered. An example of analyzing the history of social networks has been suggested, which allows us to reveal the full potential of this method for the development of digital sociology. Social networks expand horizontal communication and create opportunities for rapid, networked dissemination of information. Almost barrier-free entry and wide circulation make it possible to use a longknown and proven tool more widely. Storytelling allows you to get visual, emotional, and evaluative components of any biography. Information obtained using this method gives us an opportunity to study several layers of a particular biography and build a network of social relationships of the individual, that is, to look at these or other facts of the biography from different points of view of the participants of the events. The story analyzed in this paper is interesting for its genre: a personal narrative created at the initiative of the online magazine Lady.mail.ru. The communication channel that is used to broadcast the story affects on the content of the message being transmitted, thus being an element of the story itself. For example, the same story can be told differently through text and video, respectively, having a different impact, or vice versa, different tools may be used to transmit the same story, depending on the specifics of the transmission channel. Each story has an individual storyteller, it is an element of a larger, multi-voiced story. Modern digital technologies have simplified and expanded the possibilities of the biographical method, since a huge amount of biographical information is voluntarily uploaded to social networks by millions of their users from different segments of the population, which allows us using this method to analyze most of the problems that are in the interests of modern sociological thought.

Internet communications of military personnel and their families in social networks as an object of digital sociology’s study

The conceptual, methodological and technological approaches to organization of sociological study of communicative Internet activity ofmilitary personnel in a social networks, the specific behavior in accordance with the requirements as to members ofthe militaryprofessional corporate group of people in the information-communication network “Internet” have been considered. The constitutional norms that restrict the rights of military personnel in various spheres of social interaction, as well as the norms of domestic legislation that specify these requirements have been analyzed. The described type of Internet communication has been characterized as an object of study of military sociology at various levels: general scientific, private scientific and empirical. The author's found a connection between a considered problem with the concepts of “information society”, “digital society”, “digital economy” and virtualization of social relations, as well as the concept of “human rights”. The general tendency to include of various countries confrontation with a likely enemy in the virtual space in the military- doctrinal documents has been revealed. At the same time, ensuring military security involves protecting the minds of their military personnel from negative impact, including in the case of their use of services in the Internet space. The experience of other countries in regulating the social activity of military personnel and their families in the Internet has been described. Based on the generalization of social practice, conclusions from the risk analysis of the participation of subjects of military professional activity in social networks, which is associated with threats to determine the location of military units, plans for the movement of troops, weapons, staff and personnel, that is, information constituting a military secret, have been presented. A list of other threats related to social communications of military personnel and their families in the virtual space also has been adduced. The ways to reduce the risk of negative impact on military members and their families participate in social networks and other Internet communications by implementing legal, organizational and outreach activities have been presented.

What is Digital Sociology?

What is Digital Sociology?

Doing Internet research with hard-to-reach communities: methodological reflections on gaining meaningful access

This article contributes to scholarship on digital sociology by addressing the methodological challenge of gaining access to hard-to-reach online communities. We use assemblage theory to argue how collaborative efforts of human participants, digital technologies, techniques, authorities, cultural codes and the human researcher co-determine aspects of gaining access to online subjects. In particular, we analyse how credibility and reflexivity are assembled in an online research context. This is exemplified by our own experiences of researching hackers that dispute surveillance and the social embeddedness of darknet drug market users. In this article, we demonstrate the utility of an assemblage perspective for understanding the complexities involved in negotiating access to hard-to-reach communities in digital spaces.

The religious factor in regional identity policy: self-presentation of Chechen leaders in the social networks

Contemporary network society with the exclusive role of Internet communications is significantly changing all spheres of life, opening up additional opportunities for manipulating public consciousness through virtual channels. The article looks into the religious aspect of self-presentation 0f several leaders 0f the Chechen Republic in the s0cial netw0rks and c0nsiders h0w the “religi0us factor” is actualized 0n the Internet pages 0f the p0litical and religi0us elite 0f the republic. The social political analysis of the views and attitudes of elite groups allows us to determine the development vectors of the regional community and to predict emerging problems, the main characteristics and elements of which are reflected on social network pages. The article presents the results of a sociological study of Internet activity of the Chechen elite on the VKontakte, Instagram and Telegram pages. The study was based on network analysis, that is, a noncontact method of digital sociology, taking into account the normative, visual and substantial aspects of the presentation of the studied objects. The following political and religious leaders of the Chechen Republic were chosen: Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of the Chechen Republic, Muslim Khuchiev, the Chairman of the Chechen Government, Adam Shakhidov, the Advisor to the leader of the Chechen Republic on religious issues, and Salah Mezhiev, Mufti of the Chechen Republic. The analysis of their publication activity and textual content of comments was carried out, which allowed us to identify the key strategies for incorporating religious resource in the regional identity policy. As a result of the study, the high significance of the religious resource for the ideological substantiation of political actions of the regional elite was revealed. Moreover, the reference to the religious context is instrumentalistic and is determined by the political conjuncture. In conclusion, the most problematic points of religious discourse of the Chechen leaders are indicated.

Digital monitoring of socioeconomic situation of urban population

The subject of this research is the socioeconomic situation of urban population and its response to the processes ongoing within the urban environment. Special attention is turned to digital sociology ensuring the due theoretical-methodological framework and toolset for diagnostic and determination of responses based on formation and processing of big data array extracted from the digital environment represented by social media. Digital environment has potential related in inclusion of new research algorithms and technologies into studying social processes unfolding within urban space. Solution of the task of monitoring of socioeconomic situation of urban population is realized through operationalization of big data using network analysis. The article proposes the procedure for creating in midterm perspective of innovative information system for monitoring the quality of life and socioeconomic situation of urban population based on the comprehensive information maintenance of collection and processing of big data arrays of socioeconomic nature. The author described the components ensuring functionality of the suggested information-analytical system.

Three faces of the online leftists: An exploratory study based on case observations and big-data analysis

Left-leaning social thoughts are not a unitary and coherent theoretical system, and leftists can be divided into divergent groups. Based on inductive qualitative observations, this article proposes a theoretical typology of two dimensions of theoretical resources and position orientations to describe left-wing social thoughts communicated in online space. Empirically, we used a mixed approach, an integration of case observations and big-data analyses of Weibo tweets, to investigate three types of left-leaning social thoughts. The identified left-leaning social thoughts include state-centered leftism, populist leftism, and liberal leftism, which are consistent with the proposed theoretical typology. State-centered leftism features strong support of the state and the current regime and a negative attitude toward the West, populist leftism is characterized by unequivocal affirmation of the revolutionary legacy and support for disadvantaged grassroots, and liberal leftism harbors a grassroots position and a decided affirmation of individual rights. In addition, we used supervised machine learning and social network analysis techniques to identify online communities that harbor the afore-mentioned left-leaning social thoughts and analyzed the interaction patterns within and across communities as well as the evolutions of community structures. We found that during the study period of 2012–2014, the liberal leftists gradually declined and the corresponding communities dissolved; the interactions between populist leftists and state-centered leftists intensified, and the ideational cleavage between these two camps increased the online confrontations. This article demonstrates that the mixed method approach of integrating traditional methods with big-data analytics has enormous potential in the sub-discipline of digital sociology.

Digital policy sociology: software and science in data-intensive precision education

ABSTRACT Software code, algorithms, data analytics and infrastructures have become inseparable from policy processes and modes of governance. This article introduces ‘digital policy sociology’ as a way of studying the role and influence of digital technologies in education policy. Building on existing ‘policy sociology’ approaches combined with emerging insights rom ‘digital sociology’, digital policy sociology extends the analytical gaze to new technical actors – nonhuman software and hardware, as well as human experts, technology companies, and promotional organizations. As a case study exemplar, the analysis focuses on an emerging domain of data-intensive science and technology with significant implications for education policy in the future. ‘Precision education’ is an emerging combination of psychological, neuroscientific and genetic expertise, with a particular emphasis on using advanced computational technologies to produce ‘intimate data’ about students’ bodies and biological associations with learning. These intimate data have potential to become new sources of biological policy knowledge, raising significant methodological and analytical challenges for policy sociology.