Processualizing Data: Variants of Process-Produced Data

Abstract

The greatly increased importance of diachronic process perspectives in the social sciences has led to process-produced data (PPD) becoming one of the main topics of this debate. However, its current use is peculiarly ambivalent. It oscillates between substantialist understandings and self-evident use. This article stresses the beforehand conceptual decisions made by the researcher that eventually define data, that is, which materials become PPD. Because process-oriented research rests on heterogenous conceptions of temporality, it is especially these conceptions researchers must make transparent. Drawing on social constructivism, extended by path dependency, happenings, and events, the article exemplifies one conceptual foundation and, using insights from two research projects (historical discussion circles and trajectories of digital infrastructures), a particular specification of PPD. The article thus contributes to the necessary methodological reflection on PPD, and, at the same time, responds to the need for diachronic social research in order to grasp contemporary processes of digitalization.