Handbook of Digital and Computational Research Methods
In the Social Sciences and Humanities
Published on 13. January 2026
Book
Hardback
380 pages
978-1-80220-898-6 (ISBN)
Description
This comprehensive Handbook presents an examination of recent changes to data and methods in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Contributors explore this heterogeneous and multidisciplinary landscape while focussing on the cross-cutting discussions and infrastructures that underpin them.
Drawing on epistemological and methodological perspectives, case studies reveal how the emergence of digital and computational methods has altered disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, media studies, psychology and history. Insights into core debates are provided, including the role of theory in empirical work, the hope for objectivity, and the divide between qualitative and quantitative methods. The Handbook critically discusses the risks and ethical complications accompanying the convergence of digital and computational methods, as well as in delegating analytical power to algorithmic systems. It also provides a unique tool-makers perspective on the institutional set-up around digital and computational methods labs within SSH.
This Handbook is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the fields of information systems, knowledge management and research methods. It is also an essential resource for researchers and decision-makers in SSH looking to further their understanding of digital and computational research methods and their disciplinary implications.
Drawing on epistemological and methodological perspectives, case studies reveal how the emergence of digital and computational methods has altered disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, media studies, psychology and history. Insights into core debates are provided, including the role of theory in empirical work, the hope for objectivity, and the divide between qualitative and quantitative methods. The Handbook critically discusses the risks and ethical complications accompanying the convergence of digital and computational methods, as well as in delegating analytical power to algorithmic systems. It also provides a unique tool-makers perspective on the institutional set-up around digital and computational methods labs within SSH.
This Handbook is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the fields of information systems, knowledge management and research methods. It is also an essential resource for researchers and decision-makers in SSH looking to further their understanding of digital and computational research methods and their disciplinary implications.
Reviews / Votes
'This Handbook provides a valuable overview of digital methods in the social sciences and humanities, and also shows methods in action, demonstrating to readers how computational methods can combine qualitative and quantitative approaches suited to research questions and contexts.' -- Jill Walker Rettberg, University of Bergen, Norway 'This is both an impressively broad Handbook and a reflective, original contribution to debates about digital and computational method. It can be both things at once because the book's methodological intervention - refusing oppositions between qualitative and quantitative, or empirical and hermeneutic approaches to social life - is part of the motivation for the breadth of its disciplinary scope. Scholars across the full range from history to psychology will find new insights here about the history and likely future of computational methods in their field.' -- Ted Underwood, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USAMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 169 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80220-898-6 (9781802208986)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Edited by Anders Koed Madsen, Professor of Data, Democracy and Digital Urbanism and Anders Kristian Munk,Professor of Computational Anthropology, Department of Technology, Management & Economics, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Content
Contents
1 After the trench wars: heterodox research practices in digital and
computational SSH (Introduction to the Handbook of Digital and
Computational Research Methods) 1
Anders Koed Madsen and Anders Kristian Munk
PART I Disciplinary perspectives
2 Archaeology 19
Iza Romanowska
3 The digital historian's craft 32
Martin Grandjean
4 Computational anthropology 49
Samantha Breslin and Kristoffer Albris
5 Economic sociology: Using agent-based modelling to study financial
markets 66
Christian Borch and Nicholas Skar-Gislinge
6 Four guiding principles for rethinking organizational charts 81
Dario Rodighiero
7 The digital turn in food studies 96
Tanja Schneider
8 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in behavioural psychology
for complex human-environment systems 113
Jens Koed Madsen
9 Situating digital data in media and communication research 130
Sharon Meraz
10 Objectivity in/through partial perspectives 151
Laura K. Nelson
PART II EPISTEMIC TROUBLE
11 Bias in machine learning as a multi-dimensional problem 161
Mascha Kurpicz-Briki
12 Online groundedness 178
Richard Rogers
13 Theoretical heuristics in digital social research 191
Hjalmar Bang Carlsen
14 Beyond the quant and qual divide 202
David Moats
15 The vanishing micro/macro divide and the politics of computational
interactionism 222
Tommaso Venturini
16 Gatekeeping: The case of digital archives 234
Johan Heinsen
17 Representation and visualization 246
Michele Mauri
18 Mapping with care: Data feminist principles for participatory visual
practices 261
Gabriele Colombo and Sabine Niederer
19 Privacy in digital and computational SSH 275
Nicholas Proferes
PART III MAKING THE INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
HUMANITIES
Introduction to Part III
20 Toolmaking is science by other means 295
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
21 Meet the DCSSH toolmakers 308
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
22 Why do DCSSH toolmakers make tools? 315
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
23 The lifecyle of DC tools for SSH 326
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
24 Valuing toolmaking in academia 340
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
25 In defense of the researcher-toolmaker figure 351
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
1 After the trench wars: heterodox research practices in digital and
computational SSH (Introduction to the Handbook of Digital and
Computational Research Methods) 1
Anders Koed Madsen and Anders Kristian Munk
PART I Disciplinary perspectives
2 Archaeology 19
Iza Romanowska
3 The digital historian's craft 32
Martin Grandjean
4 Computational anthropology 49
Samantha Breslin and Kristoffer Albris
5 Economic sociology: Using agent-based modelling to study financial
markets 66
Christian Borch and Nicholas Skar-Gislinge
6 Four guiding principles for rethinking organizational charts 81
Dario Rodighiero
7 The digital turn in food studies 96
Tanja Schneider
8 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in behavioural psychology
for complex human-environment systems 113
Jens Koed Madsen
9 Situating digital data in media and communication research 130
Sharon Meraz
10 Objectivity in/through partial perspectives 151
Laura K. Nelson
PART II EPISTEMIC TROUBLE
11 Bias in machine learning as a multi-dimensional problem 161
Mascha Kurpicz-Briki
12 Online groundedness 178
Richard Rogers
13 Theoretical heuristics in digital social research 191
Hjalmar Bang Carlsen
14 Beyond the quant and qual divide 202
David Moats
15 The vanishing micro/macro divide and the politics of computational
interactionism 222
Tommaso Venturini
16 Gatekeeping: The case of digital archives 234
Johan Heinsen
17 Representation and visualization 246
Michele Mauri
18 Mapping with care: Data feminist principles for participatory visual
practices 261
Gabriele Colombo and Sabine Niederer
19 Privacy in digital and computational SSH 275
Nicholas Proferes
PART III MAKING THE INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
HUMANITIES
Introduction to Part III
20 Toolmaking is science by other means 295
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
21 Meet the DCSSH toolmakers 308
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
22 Why do DCSSH toolmakers make tools? 315
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
23 The lifecyle of DC tools for SSH 326
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
24 Valuing toolmaking in academia 340
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder, Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck
25 In defense of the researcher-toolmaker figure 351
Mathieu Jacomy, Bernhard Rieder , Erik Borra, Guillaume Plique,
Kenneth Christian Enevoldsen and Nees Jan van Eck