Introduction - From door to door to digital: The evolving social survey in the making of modern knowledge

Abstract

The technologies and methods of twentieth-century social surveys are ubiquitous in the early decades of the twenty first century. Today, private companies, political campaigns and news organizations poll, survey, interpret, publicize and monetize the opinions of so-called ordinary people. Notably, people’s opinions drive their engagement with large social media platforms and generate profits for global businesses. And yet, the methods used and people who seek to quantify public opinion are often disconnected from the histories of these practices.