http://www.urbaninformatics.net/theorising-digital-change/ Workshop introduction QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre and Urban Informatics Research Lab welcome you to our 1-day workshop about how to combine research and theory in the investigation of digital change. Digital change involves the shifting of people, relationships, institutions, policies and laws, geographies, urban landscapes, and society in relation to new digital technologies. This workshop challenges researchers with quantitative or qualitative data to tie their findings into a larger picture using theory. It also dares theorists to link their concepts to everyday occurrences and experiences. The workshop will consist of presentations discussing ideas and challenges related to combining theory and research alongside a keynote presentation and an expert plenary panel. The keynote will be given by guest speaker Centenary Research Professor Deborah Lupton from the University of Canberra. Professor Lupton conducts cutting-edge multidisciplinary research specialising in digital health, big data cultures, surveillance, wearable technology, and risk. The panel will discuss how to integrate theory and research findings along with an interactive Q and A session.

1. Workshopping the relationship between
digital theory and research
26 November 2015
Coordinated by:
Stefanie Duguay (@DugStef) &
Carlos Estrada Grajales (@carlestrada87)
#TDCworkshop
Theorising Digital Change

2. THEORY
• “A system of ideas
intended to explain
something” – Google
• “Assumptions about
how the world basically
operates and about
what knowledge is”
– Hadden, 2007
• How we make sense of
data and how data fits
into a larger picture
Marxism
Structuralism
Post-modernism
Critical theory
Legal frameworks
Symbolic interactionism
Political economy
Feminism
Risk theory
Queer theory
Actor Network Theory
Materialism
Phenomenology
Critical race theory
Public sphere theory
Orientalism
Institutional theory
Reception theory
Freudian theory
Narrative theory
Literary theory
Semiotics
Frame theory
Democracy theory

3. DATA
• “Facts and statistics
collected together for
reference or analysis”
– Google
• “We associate reality
with empirical data”
gathered through
“perceptions”
– Sears, 2005
Stories
Experiences
Statistics
Photos
Videos
Interviews
Texts
Observations
Field notes
Historical records
Media articles
Organizational docs
Legal proceedings
Art
News trends
Geo-coordinates
Diaries
Experiments
Population trends
Market fluctuations
Case studies
Image from Giphy

4. Digital Change
• Shifting of people, relationships, institutions,
geographies, urban landscapes, and society in
relation to new digital technologies
New & Different Data
Emails
Blogs
Tweets
Hyperlinks
Digital designs
Selfies
Vlogs
GIFs
Shares & Likes
Comments
Software architectures
New & Different Theories
Computational turn (Berry)
Hashtag publics (Bruns, Burgess)
Networked publics (boyd, etc)
Memetics (Shifman, etc)
Big data ethics (boyd & Crawford)
Digital self-presentation (Goffman 2.0)
Media life (Deuze)
Post-panoptic surveillance (Lyon)
Microcelebrity (Senft)
Professional presence bleed (Gregg)
Affect theory (Papacharissi, etc)
Photo from Urban Informatics

5. New & Different Syntheses
• Opportunities for creativity and
innovation
• Linked with existing knowledge,
identifying continuities
• Producing robust, insightful, applicable
research into the future