October 31, 2018 Noon in COBA 239
What is the role of social theory in the information age? What kinds of theories are best suited to analyzing the social uses of digital technologies, and for using digital technologies in new ways to study the social? In this talk I will attempt to contribute to several ongoing conversations on how the social sciences can best adapt to contemporary information technologies and information societies. Focusing on practical or “usable theory,” I survey the challenges and opportunities of conducting social science in the information age, as well as the theoretical solutions that social researchers have developed and applied since the 1990s. I take a long-term view of theoretical development in evaluating schools of thought in terms of their productivity in analyzing and using contemporary digital communication technologies, and delineate three innovative theoretical approaches in digital social research: critical theory, forensic theory, and Bourdieusian theory. For each approach I provide an overview of its history and main tenets, survey research on the social uses of communication technologies that employs the approach, survey how scholars have used emerging digital research methods in projects based on the approach, and evaluate its successes as well as its limitations.