The digital humanities beyond a predictable approach: an outline of a concept under construction

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers the digital humanities as a product and symptom of the methodological transformations of the use of technologies in the research activities. The text presents the relations between the human sciences and digital humanities, establishing it under the scope of a transdisciplinar relation, interdependent to the humanities. It proposes a reflection upon how computing assists in the research practice of research and how theoretical and practical problems acquire a new perspective through computation. It highlights HDs as a new area for reflection, which opens new possibilities for teaching and research in humanities, at the same time as they cause methodological, technical, structural and organizational transformations in the field. It points out HDs as a tool for reconfiguration and potentialization of the research activity, alerting against the prejudice of facing them only as an additive to the methodologic practices already in place. It alerts for the economic and resonance implications regarding the application of the tools provided by the digital humanities. It exposes that the application of technology in the digital humanities must be accompanied by the humanistic reflection about them. It indicates the need to carry out a mapping, based on its literature and its practical-conceptual framework, so that a concrete measurement of the scope of the digital humanities can be achieved.

Keywords: Digital Humanities; Digital Technologies; Digital Research Methods; Digital Research Tools; Computer Aided Research Methodology.