Simon Lindgren - Data Theory

1 Title page Data Theory Interpretive Sociology and Computational Methods Simon Lindgren polity

2 Copyright page Copyright page Copyright © Simon Lindgren 2020 The right of Simon Lindgren to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2020 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3927-7 (hardback) ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3928-4 (paperback) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10.5 on 12pt Sabon by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

3 Introduction: Data/Theory Outline of this book

4 1 Beyond Method Datafication Data theory Verstehen and Evidenz Theories old and new A bit of anarchy Data piñata Breaking things to move forward A patchwork of solutions The interpretive interface Instruments of revelation

5 2 Decoding Social Forms The odd places of politics Social media politics for better or for worse Virality and memes The Weber connection: Ambivalence and trolling as ideal types The Durkheim connection: Society > the sum of its parts The Simmel connection: Social forms Social cryptography

6 3 Unintended Consequences The thumb-typing leader of the free world Unpacking ambivalence Error L’affaire covfefe Social media backfire

7 4 Actor-Networks A sociology of translation Finding the actors Making connections Who owns theory?

8 5 Collective Representations Words and the company they keep Learning from afar Reading Reddit Mapping the language of Reddit Nodes and chains

9 6 Symbolic Power Social fields Capital and habitus Adapting Bourdieu’s capital forms to social media data A social space of political tweets

10 7 Theoretical I/O Gaining theoretical sensitivity Data science as ethnography

11 Conclusion: Theory/Data Brutalising theory Notes on ethics Final remarks

12 References

13 Index

14 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Contents

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Simon Lindgren

polity

Copyright © Simon Lindgren 2020

The right of Simon Lindgren to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2020 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

101 Station Landing

Suite 300

Medford, MA 02155, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3927-7 (hardback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3928-4 (paperback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Typeset in 10.5 on 12pt Sabon

by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

This book is a tentative and modest proposal on how to think and operate as a theoretically sensitive social scientist in the age of datafication, especially when researching sociality and politics through the internet. The book emphasises the need to think freely and openly about both theory and method, and goes beyond some of the ways of doing social research that are dominant today. It does so by playfully and tentatively combining elements of theories and methods, some of which are commonly seen as being incompatible.