2016 Workshop 3 – Conceptual Challenges in Interdisciplinary Social Media Research

Abstract: Many, if not all, affirm the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in social media research, as different disciplinary backgrounds contribute different skills to the analysis of complex socio-technical objects. However such collaborations also entail conceptual challenges, encountered at the level of substantive theoretical commitments but also in terms of taken-for-granted assumptions that inform everyday practice.

The workshop as a whole will aim both to familiarise participants with common conceptual challenges confronted in interdisciplinary social media research, as well as drawing upon their own experience and understanding to unpack these challenges and explore potential routes beyond them. In doing so, we hope to develop new perspectives on these issues, including the disciplinary origins of these conceptual challenges, which can constitute the basis for further work and the production of practical toolkits to inform interdisciplinary working.

Pre-Workshop Prep:
No Prerequisites Required

Workshop Contact
Mark Carrigan – [email protected] 

Presenters:

mcMark Carrigan is Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Ontology at the University of Warwick. He is Digital Fellow at the Sociological Review and convenor of the Independent Social Research Foundation’s Digital Social Science Forum. He can be reached at [email protected], or by Twitter at @mark_carrigan.


imageLes Carr is Professor of Web Science at the Univeristy of Southampton. He is co-director of the Web Science Institute and the technical director of the EPrints Repository software team and the EPrints Services repository hosting and consultancy company. He can be reached at [email protected], or by Twitter at @lescarr.


Susan-Halford.tif_SIA_JPG_fit_to_width_INLINESusan Halford is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Division of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton. She is Co-Director of the Work Futures Research Centre and Co-Director of the Web Science Institute. She can be reached at [email protected], or by Twitter at @susanjhalford.


Evelyn Ruppert is Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths and the Founding Editor and Editor of Big Data and Society with interests in the sociology of governance specifically in relation to how different kinds of data are constituted and mobilised to enact and manage populations. She can be reached at [email protected], or by Twitter at @ESRuppert.


emma-uprichardEmma Uprichard is Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies and Co-Director of the Warwick Q-Step Centre, at the University of Warwick. She can be reached by [email protected], or by Twitter at @EmUprichard.  


John V Willshire Founder of SmitheryJohn V Willshire is Founder of Smithery, a Strategic Design Unit. He is inventor of @artefact_cards and a visiting lecturer at IED Barcelona.