Experimental collaborations

Abstract

This position article argues in favour of a research programme for the exploration of experimental collaborations, a methodological approach whose epistemic engagement with the empirical work is experimental and whose relational mode is collaborative. Digital technologies have effected a process of redistribution of social science research by which non-experts and lay people are increasingly using and developing tools for the production of sociological knowledge. Under these circumstances, we argue that such a redistribution of social science research is an opportunity to renew the epistemic practices of social scientists. With the proposal of experimental collaborations, we invoke a twofold displacement for social research: from a merely observational mode of research to an experimental one and from individualistic or merely engaged conceptions of research to a collective exploration of problems yet unknown.