Teleoptical Perspectives on Digital Methods: Scientific Claims and Consequences

Abstract

Computer-assisted tools have introduced new ways to conduct research in the social sciences and the humanities. Digital methods, as an umbrella term for this line of methodology, have presented new vocabularies that affect research communities from different disciplines. The aim of this chapter is to discuss how digital methods can be understood and scrutinized as procedures of collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting born-digital and digitized material. We aim to problematize how the embracing of digital methods in the research process paves the way for certain knowledge claims. By adopting a teleoptical metaphor in order to scrutinize three case studies, our aim is to discuss the limitations and the possibilities for digital methods as a way of conducting science and research. The contribution addresses how and to what extent digital methods direct the researcher’s gaze toward particular focal points.