The Sociotechnical in Digital Sociology: Methodological Possibilities and Limitations

Abstract

Depending on the disciplinary direction and the scale of technological diffusion that was relevant at the time, the study of human-computer interaction has been characterized by various concepts. This article will focus on the main contexts of the sociotechnical - one of the concepts that is widely used to describe systems and processes, and one that includes different elements or participants - people and technologies. Such trade-offs between social and technical concepts emerged in the engineering research literature in the 1970s, were gradually adopted in the social sciences, and reached the same level of disciplinary interest by the mid-2000s. The problem of the sociotechnical continues to grow in connection with the constantly expanding digital user technologies - together with their barriers, complexities, errors and breakages - which attracts the research attention of social scientists. This work has two goals. First, the dynamics of studying the sociotechnical in different disciplinary directions will be demonstrated. For this purpose, using the Scopus publications database, the main contexts, issues and topics of relevant research will be identified for the period from 1969 to the present. Secondly, the specific features of sociotechnical research in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and digital sociology - where reflexivity in relation to the research process, data, methods, and interpretations is of great importance - will be highlighted. In conclusion, the article considers the possibilities and limitations of studying sociotechnical in conditions of technocratic discourse and the development of the digital economy.