Abstract

In an essay published in Digital Humanities Quarterly in 2013, H. Porsdam argues for the need to find the right balance between qualitative and quantitative research methods in the humanities, which are increasingly shaped by digitization. On the one hand, she starts from the observation that knowledge production and academic research are changing because of the application of digital technologies (§7); on the other hand, she notes that digitization in the humanities is accompanied by increased pressure to consider quantitative results as more “valid” as well as to disregard non-quantifiable aspects of research materials. Porsdam sees this pressure as problematic, especially because it undermines the opportunity to create a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches unique to the humanities in the digital age.