After a successful series of methods workshops, the Digital Society & Economy IRT invites you to a new series of online workshops on exciting, innovative and cutting edge digital methods and methodologies. The first workshop in the series is:

Title: Multimodal data collection during a pandemic: Experiences from the FACT-COVID project.

Invited speakers: Katherine Twamley and Humera Iqbal.

Abstract: In this presentation we will outline the digital methods we used to explore the experiences of families with children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Families and Communities in the Time of COVID (FACT-COVID) is a longitudinal mixed methods qualitative study funded by the British Academy. It is part of a consortium of ten studies from around the globe, all of whom are addressing the same research questions with the same methodological approach. We will focus on the UK project in this presentation. We collected data from 38 families from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, between May 2020 and June 2021. All household members aged 12 years and up were invited to participate. 73 individuals were recruited. Most participants completed multimodal diaries via the app Indeemo, with a final family level online interview in May/June 2021. A minority of participants chose to only participate in online interviews (an individual interview in June 2020 and a family -level interview in June 2021). In the presentation, we will discuss the benefits and challenges of our methods, both from a methodological and an ethical point of view.

Katherine Twamley bio: Katherine is Associate Professor of Sociology and Programme Director for the BSc Sociology undergraduate degree at University College London. Her research focuses on love and intimacy, gender, and family, with a geographical focus on the UK and India. Twitter: @KTwamley

Humera Iqbal bio: Humera is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology based at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, University College London, UK. Her work looks at young people and families particularly from migrant and minority groups, social representations and identity (including child language brokering, citizenship rights and youth activism, intergenerational relationships). She also is interested in how culture, nature and the arts can help improve wellbeing in individuals. Humera uses mixed methods, arts and film-based methods in her research. Twitter: @HumeraIqbal1

Innovative Research Methodologies for a Digital Society (IRMDS) (2022-2023) Workshop Series

Algorithms, digital data sets, social media networks, integrated technologies are all part of our everyday lives. How should we investigate the ongoing changes and challenges of our digital society? How should we explore our relationships with digital data and the online world? What are the limitations and affordances of new methodologies and what ethical considerations should researchers take into account as they look at the digitalisation of our lives? The Digital Society and Economy Interdisciplinary Theme Group invites you to join us for a new workshop series where you can meet researchers who will share Innovative Research Methodologies that address current digital practices and phenomena.

The workshops are open to postgraduate researchers, Early Career Researchers, as well as experienced researchers who want to learn about new methodologies or share their own experiences with the methods presented in the workshop. Each workshop will focus on a new method/methodology tried and tested in various contexts. The workshops are meant to provide participants with the opportunity to learn about that method/methodology and ask questions about the process of implementing it. Each workshop will last 50 minutes: 20-30 min. speaker's presentation and 20-30 min. Q&A.

Innovative Research Methodologies for a Digital Society (IRMDS): Workshop 1