★Series Editors: David M. Evans, Susan Halford, and Dale Southerton of the University of Bristol.
★Digital devices, data and services are inextricably woven into the fabric of contemporary societies. As a result, ‘the digital’ and ‘the social’ are co-evolving in ways that increasingly define our world as ‘sociodigital’. Artificial Intelligence, the Metaverse, automated vehicles, digital platforms and smart devices are just a few examples that have become familiar features of everyday life. These developments are prompting intense speculation about the societal impacts of digital technologies, both now and in the future.
Claims to the future matter not because they predict what is to come – which is impossible – but because they shape decisions and actions in the present. This raises critical questions about the range of sociodigital futures currently in the making, their implications for inequality and environmental sustainability and the possibilities for intervention.
★This is a timely new book series that publishes pioneering research on digital technologies, society and futures in the making. The series offers a platform for interdisciplinary research in a rapidly emerging field of enquiry that is attracting growing academic, political and public interest.
★The Sociodigital Futures series will:
- Undertake theoretical explorations of the relationship between “digital” and “social,” drawing on diverse disciplines and scholarly traditions. Papers will articulate theoretical approaches capable of grasping and actively shaping visions of socio-digital futures.
- Examine the evolving socio-digital relations centered on specific sites (such as homes, workplaces, schools, and farms), particular technologies (such as robotic assistants, mixed-reality headsets, and smart devices), or broader phenomena (such as geopolitics and everyday life). It will also address the development of future-making technologies—such as algorithms and modeling—and their underlying logics and politics, as well as digital infrastructures like 6G cellular networks.
- Engage in methodological reflection and innovation aimed at placing “social” and “digital” on equal footing, studying them together, and conducting empirical research on emerging futures. This includes, but is not limited to: digital methods, the application of novel data forms, speculative design, prospective methodologies, participatory approaches, and hybrid or pluralistic methods.
- Propose new models for addressing contemporary challenges—including environmental sustainability, financialization, technological capitalism, inequality, justice, health and well-being, and governance. By focusing on the socio-digital futures taking shape, the series helps us critically reflect on the shifting dynamics of these challenges and the broader political formations they give rise to.

The series currently comprises 2 titles volumes:
'Knowing Digital Technologies: The Futures of Social Research';
'This but Not That: On What Is and Is Not Fundamentally New About Digitalizing Societies' (to be published in February 2027; a work by Professor Theodore R. Schatzki, a leading figure in contemporary social theory)

★ Focusing on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and digital twins, this work deeply analyzes how digital technologies are reshaping and revolutionizing the cognitive frameworks of the social sciences.
★ Bridging the gap between technological theory and sociological research, it innovatively elucidates digital epistemology and research methodologies, reconstructing the paradigm of social science research in the digital age.
★ Combining theoretical depth with a forward-looking perspective, it provides scholars and students with systematic, professional academic guidance to navigate the digital transformation of the social sciences.

Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, big data, and digital twins are reshaping the ways in which the social sciences understand and produce knowledge. What impacts will these technologies have on our cognitive content and cognitive processes? This book centers on these key questions, exploring epistemology in the digital age.
By integrating technology with sociological theory, this work prompts social science researchers to rethink research design, methodological approaches, and the production of social knowledge in the digital era. Aimed at students and academic researchers, it offers rigorous, forward-looking guidance for conducting social research and addressing digital transformation.

Biagio Aragona
Professor of Sociology at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, and an expert in the methodology of social research.
He has long been interested in the use of data and secondary data in the social sciences. Many years ago, he began applying digital methods and big data to sociological research. His current research focuses on: the ethnography of algorithms and big data; open research data within the framework of open science; and search technologies as research and data infrastructure.
He is also the author of works such as “Algorithm Auditing: Why, What, and How” (Routledge, 2023) and “Emergency Technologies and Social Technologies” (FrancoAngeli, 2026).

Introduction

1. Social Science Epistemology
2. Technology and Scientific Knowledge
3. Digital Epistemology
4. Digital Methodology

Conclusion: The Future(s) of Social Research