Towards a Practice-orientated Digital Sociology

Examining how digital maps feature in people’s everyday lives and its relation to wider set of social consequences requires an appropriate framework. This chapter develops such a framework by drawing on a lineage of practice theory derived from Giddens’ structuration theory, incorporating concepts from digital geographies, digital sociology, experimental psychology, and various overlapping sub-disciplines within Internet studies (i.e., critical data studies, platform capitalism, mobile media studies). It explains why practice theory makes such a suitable base for exploring the social consequences of digital media, and how it differs from other approaches in science and technology studies and media studies, before outlining a few central tenets. Next, it charts the main theories and concepts of first- and second-wave practice theories before discussing their shared ontological base, and relevance for examining how new practices are formed and stabilised, and thus, how new technologies (such as digital maps) become integrated into everyday life. Throughout, the chapter develops a practice-orientated digital sociological framework, connecting it with digital sociology. The chapter also explains how the framework might be adapted to study engagement with a broad range of digital media.