Logo image
Back
New empiricisms of the fractal fold: Rethinking monadology in digital times
Book chapter

New empiricisms of the fractal fold: Rethinking monadology in digital times

Elizabeth de Freitas, Matthew X. Curinga, Maggie MacLure, David Rousell, Laura Trafí-Prats and Sarah E. Truman
Posthuman Social Science and Computational Culture: Essays on Methodology, Theory and Practice, pp.39-56
Routledge, 1st
2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003538769-3
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications

Metrics

1 Record Views

Abstract

New developments in digital technologies, software analytics, and computational power are changing the relationship between the quantitative and the qualitative in scientific methods. These developments have occurred alongside a growing interest in philosophies of immanence and a widespread turn to the study of non-human agency (Bennett, 2010; Braidotti, 2013; Coole & Frost, 2010). This confluence of ideas and practices has changed the way we think about the relationship between mind and matter, with implications for empiricism in the social sciences (Sorensen, 2011). A new configuration of social science is emerging in these digital times, as we tap into new kinds of data that trouble conventions regarding what constitutes the unit of analysis, and question the extent to which this data is owned or even correlated to a definitive organic and individuated subject customarily referred to as “human.” These methodological shifts demand a more careful consideration of the historical lineage of empiricism and its relation to the history of science more generally. Such historical work can help identify and articulate the specific contributions of new empiricisms.

Details

Logo image