Abstract

Researchers have relied upon digital trace data. These data organically produced by sociotechnical systems provide insights onto new digitally-related phenomena. Yet, theorizing from contexts observed through digital trace data is challenging. Digital trace data are part of contexts that are for some long-established yet changing and for others new but perhaps not fully unprecedented. Theorizing from contexts observed through digital trace data brings a dilemma between staying true to these contexts and developing new theory, which can overlook key aspects of the contexts or overstate how distinctive the observations really are. Theorizing from contexts with digital trace data thus involves developing new theory that makes sense of yet transcends contexts. This note elaborates upon the challenges and opportunities to theorize from contexts with digital trace data and provides guidance regarding how to do so. It explains how researchers can engage in probing and elucidating contexts when analyzing digital trace data. Probing contexts involves surfacing the omnibus context and identifying, scanning, and connecting the discrete contexts from which digital trace data originate. Elucidating contexts involves researchers situating, depicting, and explaining contexts to answer contextual questions such as: “Where?,” “When?,” “What?,” “Who?,” “How?,” and “Why?.” The progression of these elucidating questions helps researchers build theory from contexts observed through digital trace data. This note illustrates this framework with three papers that have relied upon digital trace data and examined distinct contexts. This framework helps researchers deepen their engagement with contexts as they analyze digital trace data and ambition to build new theory.

DOI

10.17705/1jais.00955

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