Kits for Digital Methods

Angela K. VandenBroek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, USA.Nicole Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, USA.

“Using “kits” as open-ended frameworks for practical innovation, this volume provides a remarkable foundation for digital methods. From images and video to AI; from collaboration to programming; from teaching STEM students to building an academic website—and so much more—it’s a true resource. I’ll use it for years to come.”—Tom Boellstorff, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, United States“Kits for Digital Methods brilliantly challenges and reimagines the technosolutionist concept of toolkit, offering instead a reflexive approach to critical engagement with sociotechnical systems. By treating kits as boundary objects, the volume helps spur methodological innovation through experimental, collaborative and ethical engagement with the shifting terrain of digital life.”—Dominic Boyer, Social Design Lab, Rice University, United States“Kits is a source of inspiration and guidance to social researchers exploring the intricacies of digital mediation. Through open reflections on their experiences, the authors offer valuable insights on how to engage with digital technologies in innovative ways. A must have for digital ethnographers as well as media and STS scholars.”—Paula Uimonen, Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden“This kit of kits offers something rare for anthropologists interested in digital research: concrete advice! The chapters here will help researchers figure out how to approach fields from Facebook to YouTube or AI to UX, with well-considered guidance and reflection on what our methods are good for.”—Nick Seaver, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University, United States“Kits for Digital Methods is an invaluable resource. It will help all of those who are looking to innovate their methodologies and reconceptualize their toolbox into a blended format which keeps with the critical tradition of the social sciences and the humanities while at the same time drives forward the practical real-world engagement of living methods. Not only a must-read, but a must-implement book.”—Lora Koycheva, Technical University of Brandenburg and founder of Robots, actually!, Germany“This volume is a pick-n-mix of social research methods. From participatory approaches and reflexive methods, to modes of inquiry that use creative practice and emerging technologies, to kits that boost your data analysis; VandenBroek and Taylor have assembled an impressive range of contributors in this handbook for researchers and students.”—Rebekah Cupitt, Digital Design, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom

• 1. The Kits for Digital Methods Kit Introduction Part I: Digital Engagement Kits 2. The Remote Fieldwork Kit 3. The UX Researcher’s Identity Balancing Kit 4. The Programming as Participant-Observation Kit 5. The Friending as Participant Observation Kit 6. The AI Impact Engagement Kit Part II: Digital Elicitation Kits 7. The AI Feedback Kit 8. The Making Together Kit 9. The Photostories Kit 10. The Collaborative Comics and Image Description Kit 11. The Participatory Analysis Kit Part III: Digital Data Kits 12. The Purposeful Sample Kit 13. The Metadata and Mapping Kit 14. The Image Collage Kit 15. The Encountering Qualitative Data with STEM Students Kit 16. The Academic Website Building and Optimization Kit 17. The Kits for Digital Methods Kit Conclusion Appendix: Kit Component Reference