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We are conceptually and theoretically moving towards a return of things, of nature, of materiality exactly when we digitally upgrade every single aspect of our lives. The paper takes this curiosity as a starting point to turn current digital transformations into a test case for the usefulness of an approach that aims at empirically understanding and politically intervening in digital materialities. In the last two decades, three distinct approaches towards digital materialities have been developed with a focus on the materiality of hardware in the case of postkittlerian media theory, software in the case of critical code studies and runtime in the case of data studies. They can be empirically combined and turned into a framework for political intervention. The paper works toward such a framework by commenting on two different ways of moving towards "new materialism": Karen Barads ethico-onto-epistemology and Bruno Latour's attempt to map and transform modern modes of existence. While partners in crime in terms of symmetry and in repositioning materiality, Latour's approach is far more engaged than Barad's. An empirical and interventionist focus on the politics of (at least) three digital materialities can help to further develop this approach.

We are conceptually and theoretically moving towards a return of things, of nature, of materiality exactly when we digitally upgrade every single aspect of our lives. The paper takes this curiosity as a starting point to turn current digital transformations into a test case for the usefulness of an approach that aims at empirically understanding and politically intervening in digital materialities. In the last two decades, three distinct approaches towards digital materialities have been developed with a focus on the materiality of hardware in the case of postkittlerian media theory, software in the case of critical code studies and runtime in the case of data studies. They can be empirically combined and turned into a framework for political intervention. The paper works toward such a framework by commenting on two different ways of moving towards "new materialism": Karen Barads ethico-onto-epistemology and Bruno Latour's attempt to map and transform modern modes of existence. While partners in crime in terms of symmetry and in repositioning materiality, Latour's approach is far more engaged than Barad's. An empirical and interventionist focus on the politics of (at least) three digital materialities can help to further develop this approach. ; We are conceptually and theoretically moving towards a return of things, of nature, of materiality exactly when we digitally upgrade every single aspect of our lives. The paper takes this curiosity as a starting point to turn current digital transformations into a test case for the usefulness of an approach that aims at empirically understanding and politically intervening in digital materialities. In the last two decades, three distinct approaches towards digital materialities have been developed with a focus on the materiality of hardware in the case of post-kittlerian media theory, software in the case of critical code studies and runtime in the case of data studies. They can be empirically combined and turned into a framework for political intervention. The paper works toward such a framework by commenting on two different ways of moving towards "new materialism": Karen Barads ethico-onto-epistemology and Bruno Latour's attempt to map and transform modern modes of existence. While partners in crime in terms of symmetry and in repositioning materiality, Latour's approach is far more engaged than Barad's. An empirical and interventionist focus on the politics of (at least) three digital materialities can help to further develop this approach.

Jenseits der gepflegten Rhetorik der Medienrevolution sind um digitale Technologien herum in nahezu allen Bereichen neue Praxis-, Organisations- und Ordnungsformen entstanden, die soziologische Theoriebildung, Methodenentwicklung und empirische Sozialforschung vor handfeste Herausforderungen stellen. Eignen sich unsere an Handeln, Kommunikation oder Praxis orientierten Theorien, um das Mitwirken von Algorithmen zu beschreiben? Sind unsere an Sprache, Bild und gedrucktem Text geschulten Methoden geeignet, um die automatische Modifikation von Text, Bild und Bewegtbild durch Filtertechnologien zu analysieren? Wie gehen wir mit der zunehmenden Konkurrenz in Bezug auf Auswertungs- und Analyseverfahren um? [Verlagshomepage]

Konnten wir noch vor etwa zehn Jahren die Zurückhaltung der Soziologie in Bezug auf Digitalisierung als gesunde Vorsicht vor dem Hype des "Virtuellen" und des "Cyberspace" rechtfertigen, stellt sich die Lage heute anders dar: Jenseits der gepflegten Rhetorik der Medienrevolution sind um digitale Technologien herum in nahezu allen Bereichen neue Praxis-, Organisations- und Ordnungsformen entstanden, die soziologische Theoriebildung, Methodenentwicklung und empirische Sozialforschung vor handfeste Herausforderungen stellen. Eignen sich unsere an Handeln, Kommunikation oder Praxis orientierten Theorien, um das Mitwirken von Algorithmen zu beschreiben? Sind unsere an Sprache, Bild und gedrucktem Text geschulten Methoden geeignet, um die automatische Modifikation von Text, Bild und Bewegtbild durch Filtertechnologien zu analysieren? Wie gehen wir mit der zunehmenden Konkurrenz in Bezug auf Auswertungs- und Analyseverfahren um? Diesen Fragen geht der Sonderband der Sozialen Welt (ISSN 0038-6073) nach. Mit Beiträgen von Dirk Baecker, Sascha Dickel, Tobias Wolbring, Barbara Sutter, Sabine Maasen, Elke Wagner, Niklas Barth, Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda, Roger Häußling, Udo Thiedeke, Josef Wehner, Nicole Zillien, Bernadette Kneidinger-Müller, Heike Greschke, Jagoda Motowidlo, René König, Patrik Sumpf, Christian Stegbauer, Alexander Mehler, Oliver Nachtwey, Philipp Staab, Andreas Boes, Tobias Kämpf, Alexander Zielger, Sabine Pfeiffer, Anne Suphan, Uli Meyer, Uwe Matzat, Erik van Ingen, Christian Papsdorf, Tanja Carstensen, Jeffrey Wimmer, John Postill, Victor Lasa, Ge Zhang, Evelyn Ruppert