Institute for Culture and Society

By coordinating efforts to integrate digital sources and methods across the spectrum of ICS's activities, this strand coordinates ICS's engagements with the transition from analogue to digital modes of knowledge production and sociality. There are three main aspects to these engagements.

First, the strand evaluates the role of digital technologies in reshaping the practices of contemporary Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) research, e.g. the wide range of practices currently being developed under the rubric of the 'digital humanities'. This includes the opportunities that are presented for new forms of cultural analysis - including the formulation of new research questions and methods - presented by the digitisation of historical sources and archives.

Second, the program integrates the use of digital sources and methods into the design of research projects from the development stage. Digital sources, in this context, include not only public and commercial transactional data but the wide range of human and machine-generated expressions that can now be accessed online, primarily but not only through the Internet. Digital methods include techniques and tools such as tagging, hyperlink analysis, databasing, visualisation, geo-information systems, spatial analysis and the creation of virtual research environments. Our research includes aspects of these as an essential means of developing new digital research capacities on the part of ICS research staff.

Third, the strand contributes to the integration of digital technologies in knowledge transfer and exchange by exploiting the use of digital media and technology to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and scholarly and creative exchange, as well as the possibilities they offer for new kinds of written, visual and spatial presentation. A central focus is the presentation of humanities and social science research online. Two initial projects are proposed.