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DH is us or on the unbearable lightness of a shared methodology
Wir sind die Digitalen Geisteswissenschaften oder Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit einer geteilten Methodologie
[journal article]
Abstract "In practice the Digital Humanities are methodologically defined by the principle of digital conceptualization of the objects and procedures of research. Who embarks upon Digital Humanities considers the objects of study implicitly as a complex of discrete measurable states, to apply, based upon thi... view more
"In practice the Digital Humanities are methodologically defined by the principle of digital conceptualization of the objects and procedures of research. Who embarks upon Digital Humanities considers the objects of study implicitly as a complex of discrete measurable states, to apply, based upon this, computer based procedures: analytical, symbolizing or modeling. This mode of digital conceptualization of humanistic topics of research can in principle be used within all disciplines, as a digital lingua franca. Before this background we formulate two theses: (1) This methodological theoretical claim of universality has to be relativized by the Digital Humanities community through critical reflection of methodology; digital access does not turn out to be appropriate everywhere, when we make the specifically humanistic drive for knowledge the yardstick of a cost-benefit analysis. (2) The trans-disciplinary nature of the Digital Humanities may be politically 'unbearable' by tendency from the perspective of traditional Humanities' disciplines, as it challenges their disciplinary identity. For the Digital Humanities community both of these theses lead to the obligation to engage in a critical self reflexion of their own methods - and open the dialogue with the established humanistic disciplines against its backdrop." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
cost-benefit analysis; methodology; criticism; model; computer; scientific discipline; digitalization; philology; humanities
Classification
Sociology of Science, Sociology of Technology, Research on Science and Technology
Humanities
Document language
English
Publication Year
2012
Page/Pages
p. 77-85
Journal
Historical Social Research, 37 (2012) 3
Issue topic
Kontroversen um die Digitalen Geisteswissenschaften / Controversies around the digital humanities
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.37.2012.3.77-85
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed