Social knowledge in the era of big data: Social theoretical and methodological interrogations

Data processing practices based on large data sets and data science are becoming widely adopted in all areas of society in recent years with increasing digitalization. Consequently, the main question that the thesis attempts to explore is what these novel forms of digital data and methods mean for our ways of knowing the social world – both as ordinary social actors and social researchers. Starting point of the thesis is that despite their enormous power, we do not know the workings, depths and logics of these digital knowledge apparatuses, and we do not have the theoretical and methodological tools necessary to know them. Within the framework of this general purpose, the thesis attemps to theoretically, empirically and methodologically explore the contemporary digital knowledge ecology as characterised by Big Data. The thesis aims to contribute to the literature on Big Data in two ways. First, the thesis attempts to theorize the relations between society, technology and knowledge, which are transformed by the spread of computer-based data processing infrastructures, devices and practices in the social world, with a posthumanist theoretical approach. Second, it aims to make empirical contributions to the field with case studies based on digital methods, claiming that data and methods embedded to digital media open a new avenue for studying big data-based digital platforms, their epistemologies and cultures.