ABSTRACT
The sociology of the digital refers to the use of established sociological theories and methods to study social phenomena influenced by information communication technologies. Sociological research on information communication technologies has a long history, from 1970s theories of post-industrialization to research on the ‘new class’ from the 1970s–80s, on digital inequality and ‘digital divides’ since the 1990s, and in the 2000s on digitally mediated social networks and social and political conflicts. More recently, sociologists have turned their attention to the social consequences of algorithms used in social media, networking and e-commerce sites. Chapter 2 considers the role of theory in sociological research on these topics. This chapter reviews the most influential studies from these areas and finds trends in the use of theory in sociological analyses of digital inequalities and digitally mediated social networks and politics as well as in the sociology of algorithms. There has been, first, a shift from early grand theorizing to the use of middle-range theorizing and empirical analysis. Middle-range studies in all these areas use eclectic theoretical resources, including theories of class, gender, social networks and globalization as well as social constructionism and critical theory. While probably necessary given the variety of topics analysed in these literatures, the shift from a few major theoretical approaches to information technologies to numerous middle-range theories applied in empirical research has perhaps come at the expense of knowledge cumulation.
