GSSC Seminar Series
25 November 2025
Engaging with the Inter-Relationship Between Method and Data
Felix Rau (University of Cologne)
12:00-13:00
Data and data management are an important topic for research practices and policies. However, the notion of data and their role in the scientific process have been dominated by a natural science perspective on research. While there are many historical and (science) sociological reasons for this situation, methodological diversity, especially in the humanities and social sciences, is an important aspect of the sciences.
For this talk, I want to define data as any artifact of the research process that is used as evidence for knowledge claims. This perspective also means that the role and status of data changes depending on the nature of the topic and the method by which these knowledge claims are achieved. In particular, it matters whether the topic is physical non-living objects or artifacts of (human) subjectivity. The method determines whether the research relates to the entity under study as an object or a subject with their own subjectivity. All these differences also define the nature of data management.
Proper management of digital assets and the use of adequate tools can improve research processes and the reliability of the research. What are important aspects of data management and what constitutes adequate data management practices is determined by the nature of the data and how these practices are situated in the inter-relationships between participants, methods, and data.
In this talk, I want to initiate a dialogue about how a methodologically and theoretically informed data management for research of human subjectivity can look like.