Deborah Lupton, Digital sociology

Abstract

In Digital Sociology, Deborah Lupton discusses how digital technologies have been incorporated into social contexts, institutions, and notions of selfhood and embodiment. The author argues that we now live in a digital society, and this poses urgent challenges to sociological theory and practice. The said claim is supported by an assessment of recent debates, theoretical approaches, and empirical studies directly associated with the social, cultural, and political dimensions of digital technologies. Lupton defines digital sociology in terms of both professional digital practices and analyses focusing on technology use and digital data, making explicit connections to other areas of knowledge, namely, digital anthropology, cultural studies, mass communication, and media studies. Lupton also expresses her own project of a self-reflective and critical digital sociology that pays close attention to the ways in which such technologies confront academic sociology in professional, epistemological, and methodological terms.