From social space to online social media space: research approaches and challenges

The article discusses the actual sociological problem of interrelation of ontological and epistemological bases in the study of social space. The authors draw attention to the fragmentation of Internet space research and aim to analyze the transformation of scientific approaches to the problem of social space in the process of understanding the new ontology of Internet space. The methodological principles of studying social space developed in classical and modern sociology are generalized and their relevance in relation to the description of the Internet space structure is assessed. These include: understanding of space as a network individuals’ interaction, description of the boundaries of space through the thematization of social meanings, heterogeneous nature of space due primarily to the uneven distribution of various forms of cultural and social capital, its dual objective-subjective nature, the formation of new project forms of social identity. The authors note that the modern Internet space generates research challenges caused by a new ontology of interaction in the space of online social networks: changing the ratio of public and private space; contradictions in identification and presentation practices; recursive nature of the network structures formation; the emergence of hybrid subjects of communication forming new communicative configurations in online social media. It is concluded that the main vectors defining the prospects of the further Internet space researches are the development of new tools for detection and classification of groups and the “network concentration” in the virtual space; expanding the range of methods for the analysis of social space (Big Data, network mapping, and mathematical and linguistic modeling, semantic network analysis, etc.); development of theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of social Internet network structures which are symbiotic by nature.