Written by: Christoph Engemann, Jens Fehrenbacher, Sylvia Kokot, Thomas Nyckel, Alex Schmiedel, Mary Shnayien & Florian Sprenger

 Abstract: Processes of scaling lie at the heart of digital cultures and form the prerequisite for global exploitations of labor. However, when researching on, and teaching about and from within digital cultures, we are faced with a dilemma: The very quantitative procedures of data collection and analysis that most researchers use are the same ones on which economic value creation in digital cultures is based. Thus, the platforms that play a decisive role in shaping digital cultures also shape the methods and possess the datasets for research and teaching on digital cultures. To avoid this confinement, we propose using scalar translation as a method, following an inquiry-based learning approach. Drawing on four examples from our collaborative work at the Virtual Humanities Lab, we outline how in what we call speculative reconstruction, we employ different techniques of scaling to gain insights into the role of scaling in (phenomena of) digital cultures, while at the same time opening our methodology up for reflecting on the role of scalability in our own inquiries. This way, we aim to construct a more comprehensive research object that makes the large visible in the small, highlights the changes that occur when objects are downscaled, as well as accounts for our situatedness in digital cultures.  

Keywords: scale, hybrid lab, models, virtuality, downsizing