Computational Social Science: Linking Social Theory and Big Data

Below you will find the preliminary programme and a link to register for it and/or the whole programme within the framework of the Swedish e-Science Academy.

The social sciences have a long and strong history of developing theory for understanding social phenomena and dynamics. In contrast to for example economics, the social sciences have strived to understand the immense complexity of society at scales from the individual to the globe, and more recently also how the social dynamics at various scales interact with nature, e.g. in terms of climate change. Profound theoretical understanding has taken priority over empirically based evidence. The prominent sociologist, Michael Mann, famously described society as a patterned mess, and that “societies are much messier than our theories of them” (Mann 1986: The sources of Social Power, Vol. 1, p.4). Recent advances in the access to and compilation of large datasets on a wide range of social phenomena, combined with the progress of AI-based tools for analysis, have opened new opportunities for linking social theory and empirical data (that can reduce Michael Mann’s messiness) and pave the way for a new social science that can better both tell and show how social phenomena and processes matter. 

Preliminary programme

08:30 – 08:45: Coffee
08:45 – 09:00: Introducing the new LU Social Science Methods Centre (Åsa Lundqvist)
09:00 – 09:30: Foundational concepts of theory and data (Johannes Persson)
09:30 – 10:00: Computational social science – potentials and perils (Robert Klemmensen)
10:00 – 11:20: (including coffee break) Short examples of emerging and ongoing research on computational social science (10-15 minutes each)
11:20 – 12:00: Discussion on future potentials and directions of CSS (with moderator)
12:00 – 12:30: Way forward for CSS at LU Social Science Methods Centre   

Registration

For full details and registration for The Swedish e-Science Academy, please visit this webpage. 

Call for abstracts

Between 10:00 to 11:20 we invite you to submit abstracts for short presentations, 10–15 minutes each. These presentations could be about relevant research results, new ideas, new research proposals, or anything that will promote the intellectual discussion between theory and data in the social sciences. Please send your abstract (no more than 300 words) to metodcentrum [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (metodcentrum[at]sam[dot]lu[dot]se). Deadline for abstracts is 30 September. Write this in the subject: “Computational Social Science – Swedish e-Science Academy meeting 2024”.

Organisers

Robert Klemmensen, Prof., Dept. of Political Science, Head of Computational Social Science at LU Social Science Methods Centre
Åsa Lundqvist, Prof., Dept. of Sociology, Director LU Social Science Methods Centre
Lennart Olsson, Prof., LUCSUS, Lund University

Practicalities

Coffee and lunch will be offered.

Arranged by: Lund Social Science Methods Centre