It seems quite feasible that people’s sensibilities about technology may play a part in how it sits in their living rooms, but there are so many other factors that could be involved, from finances to style and a myriad of others in-between. This is where the skills of social science are needed. You can’t simply have a look round a few people’s houses to get an idea of how people choose to bring technology into their homes. Carefully considered techniques must be used in order to start to tease apart the variety of factors that influence such decisions. And in order to make any useful comment, social scientists can’t just look at a couple of examples, they need to combine real data from many sources with powerful analytical tools.

A short Open University course, Social Science in Action, teaches the fundamental skills of social science research. It focuses on the subject of the Information Society and includes the topic of the home as an indication of how people relate to technology.