China Social Science Review

No.1, 2024

Social Connection and Research Transformation in the Digital Age

(Abstract)

Wang Tianfu

The revolutionary innovation of digital technology has invited humanity to the digital society. Compared with the primal industrial society, the structural system and operational logic of the digital society have undergone fundamental changes and taken on new forms. This is attributed to the dominant way of connecting people in the digital society which is completely different from the past, constituting new social interaction behaviors and further contributing to new social structural forms and institutional arrangements. Such social changes appeals for a renewed understanding and comprehension of society. The research on the digital society is not only a mere branch of social research, but also a more in-depth analysis and exploration of these new social structure arrangements and operational mechanisms, which leads to the overall reshaping of social research and knowledge system. More active research on digital society can contribute more to the construction of Chinese independent knowledge systems.