Kits for Digital Methods: Doing Sociotechnical Research

Kits for Digital Methods: Doing Sociotechnical Research is a guide to innovating research methods for a world where digital technologies permeate everyday life and research. Drawing on the expertise of leading sociotechnical researchers, it reimagines the “kit” not as a fixed set of tools or solutions, but as a flexible, transparent, and collaborative framework for methodological experimentation. These kits are sandboxes for experimenting, playing, and reflecting on the ethics and possibilities of digital research. Organized into three sections—Digital Engagement, Digital Elicitation, and Digital Data—contributors share their processes for designing and adapting methods to complex digital contexts. Each chapter contains background, components, practical guidance, and lessons learned for exploring the frictions, failures, and surprises that shape sociotechnical research. Kits range from remote fieldwork and social media ethnography to participatory analysis, collaborative image description, and AI-assisted elicitation—filled with concrete techniques for engaging digital environments, eliciting novel forms of data, and working with digital materials. The book encourages adaptation, remixing, and the creation of new kits, fostering a culture of openness and methodological innovation. Written for researchers, educators, and students across the social sciences and humanities, it demystifies advanced digital methods while encouraging critical thinking, ethical reflexivity, and creative problem-solving.