ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on sociological and other social research in the digital era. It then examines the issue of how digital sociology may be practised in terms of research methods. Rather it presents an overview not only of some of the approaches that are available and their possibilities and limitations, but also of the more theoretical and critical stances that sociologists are taking to digital social research. The chapter reviews the innovative ways of performing digital social research that are part of attempts to invigorate sociological research practice as a way of demonstrating the new and exciting directions in which sociology can extend in response to digital society. However, there are also significant limitations for social researchers who are interested in employing big digital data sets, online data collection and analytic tools, some of which have already been touched.
