[Air-L] Methodology recommendations for platform analysis

[Ryan Burns]

Hi Jacob,
This piece of mine <https://contacts.ucalgary.ca/info/geog/files/info/unitis/publications/1-9820913/burns%2C%20wark%20-%20wheres%20the%20database%20in%20digital%20ethnography.pdf> isn't about social media per se, but may have a few useful points for you as you dig around.

Cheers,
Ryan

Burns, Ryan, G. Wark. 2019. Where’s the Database in Digital Ethnography? Exploring Database Ethnography for Open Data Research. Qualitative Research 20(5): 598-616. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794119885040.

Abstract: Contemporary cities are witnessing momentous shifts in how institutions and individuals produce and circulate data. Despite recent trends claiming that anyone can create and use data, cities remain marked by persistently uneven access and usage of digital technologies. This is the case as well within the emergent phenomenon of the ‘smart city,’ where open data are a key strategy for achieving ‘smartness,’ and increasingly constitute a fundamental dimension of urban life, governance, economic activity, and epistemology. The digital ethnography has extended traditional ethnographic research practices into such digital realms, yet its applicability within open data and smart cities is unclear. The method has tended to overlook the important roles of particular digital artifacts such as the database in structuring and producing knowledge. In this paper, we develop the database ethnography as a rich methodological resource for open data research. This approach centers the database as a key site for the production and materialization of social meaning. The database ethnography draws attention to the ways digital choices and practices—around database design, schema, data models, and so on—leave traces through time. From these traces, we may infer lessons about how phenomena come to be encoded as data and acted upon in urban contexts. Open databases are, in other words, key ways in which knowledges about the smart city are framed, delimited, and represented. More specifically, we argue that open databases limit data types, categorize and classify data to align with technical specifications, reflect the database designer’s episteme, and (re)produce conceptions of the world. We substantiate these claims through a database ethnography of the open data portal for the city of Calgary, in Western Canada.
--
Ryan Burns, PhD, FRCGS
Department of Geography
O'Brien Institute for Public Health
University of Calgary

Visiting Professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Visiting Professor, George Washington University
AAAS STPF Fellow (NSF: National AI Research Institute)
Associate Editor, GeoJournal
Vice-chair, Digital Geographies Specialty Group of the AAG

https://burnsr77.github.io/

He/his pronouns

The University of Calgary is located in southern Alberta on the traditional territories of the the Treaty 7 peoples--Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to the Metis Nation, Region 3. I am privileged, grateful, and indebted to be allowed to work within these lands.

________________________________
From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Martin Berg via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: January 5, 2024 9:16 AM
To: Jacob Johanssen <johanssenjacob at gmail.com>
Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Methodology recommendations for platform analysis

[△EXTERNAL]



Hi,

Check out this open-access article:

Berg, M. (2022). Digital Technography: A Methodology for Interrogating Emerging Digital Technologies and Their Futures. Qualitative Inquiry, 28(7), 827-836. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221096851

Abstract
This article introduces “digital technography” as a methodology to interrogate and voice emerging digital technologies and their anticipated futures. I demonstrate, with reference to recent research on wearable self-tracking devices, digital food technologies, and platforms for work automation, how one can gain an understanding of these technologies by attending to the materials in which they are promoted; and actively engaging with them imaginatively and self-reflexively as a social scientist. This article outlines a digital technographic methodology centered around the three conceptual anchors of specification, valorization, and anticipation, all of which pertain to how a digital technology aims and perhaps even aspires to become a part of everyday life.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10778004221096851

Best wishes,

Martin

—
Professor Martin Berg
Department of Computer Science and Media Technology
Malmö University

https://mau.se/en/persons/martin.berg/



> 5 jan. 2024 kl. 14:58 skrev Jacob Johanssen via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am looking for recommendations for qualitative methods / approaches to
> the analysis of social media platforms which focus on both content and
> structures / features / affordances of the platform. rather than mixed
> methods, I am wondering if colleagues have developed something more
> integrative.
>
> Many thanks!
> Best wishes,
> Jacob
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