Researching Society Online

The history of internet research methods is, naturally, much shorter than the histories of other research methods in the social sciences, though no less rich or significant as a result. The early development of distributed networked communications in the 1960s and 1970s can be seen as a relevant pre-history and emergence period for the internet, and consequently the birth of the world wide web in the early 1990s saw the internet truly break out from being a rather technical tool into a more ubiquitous aspect of everyday life. This four-volume collection begins with some of the earliest works on what was or was to become the internet, moving methodically through to present-day issues. The esteemed editorial team has selected for inclusion literatures which address a wide range of topics, and the collection is further set in context by an illuminating introductory chapter in Volume 1.