Tag: computational social science
Three computational sociologies
An interesting post by Fabio Rojas on the different ways in which the label ‘computational sociology’ has been used:
- Statistics – for the baby boomer generation of social scientists, “computing in socioal science” meant applied statistics. Remember, it requires a lot of knowledge and skill to store data and estimate models on computes with limited computing power.
- Agent based models – in the 1980s and 1990s, “computational” meant running simulations.
- Big data/CS techniques – currently, the term seems to refer to either (a) large data generated by online behavior and/or (b) using computer science techniques (e.g., topic models or sentiment analysis) to study social science data
https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/three-computational-sociologies/
My concern is that ‘computational sociology’ of the final sort risks leading to a computational social science that is not recognisably sociological: though this raises the obvious question of why this is a bad thing and what it means for something to be ‘recognisably sociological’.
Computational Social Science and the Collapse of Sociology
An interesting footnote in On Sociology by John Goldthorpe speculates on the possibility of Sociology’s collapse. From pg 9:
Such a collapse could conceivably come about through a series of ‘secessions’. For example, some university departments of sociology have already became in effect departments of ‘cultural studies’, and this could then prompt sociologists committed to quantitative analysis and ‘theory-for-explanation’ to seek new homes within social-sciences faculties that would allow them to work more closely with economists, political scientists, demographers, or social statisticians. However, what chiefly militates against such a scenario is sociology’s previous institutional success and the very fact that sociology departments do now exist. Changing the disciplinary organization of a university is, as a colleague once remarked, like ‘moving a cemetery’.
Do these conditions still obtain? Yes but I think their influence is waning. We’re currently seeing a shift in the underlying plate tectonics of the disciplinary system, one driven by but not reducible to computational innovation. I suspect that the emergence of computational social science could be the initiating factor which, as the conditions elucidated by Goldthorpe continue to wane in their influence, leads to these ‘secessions’.
Computational social science conference in Helsinki
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
International Conference on Computational Social Science
Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland, 8-11 June 2015
WEBSITE
IMPORTANT DATES
Extended deadline for abstract submission: 7 December 2014
Opening of registration: 15 January 2015
Conference dates: 8-11 June 2015
EVENT OVERVIEW
The conference will bring together scientists from different areas to meet and discuss problems on social systems and dynamics,
as well as research questions motivated by large datasets, either extracted from real applications
(e.g. social media, communication systems), or created via controlled experiments.
PROGRAM CHAIRS
Karen Cook (Stanford)
Santo Fortunato (Aalto University)
Michael Macy (Cornell)
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Opening talk by Michael Macy (Cornell)
Lada Adamic (Facebook)
Sinan Aral (MIT)
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi (Northeastern University and CEU)
Nicholas Christakis (Yale)
Robin Dunbar (Oxford)
Andreas Flache (University of Groeningen)
Dirk Helbing (ETH Zurich)
Matthew Jackson (Stanford)
Jure Leskovec (Stanford)
Alex Pentland (MIT)
Alessandro Vespignani (Northeastern University)
Duncan Watts (Microsoft)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Santo Fortunato (Aalto University),
Aristides Gionis (Aalto),
Heikki Hämmäinen (Aalto),
Kimmo Kaski (Aalto),
Walter Quattrociocchi (IMT Lucca),
Jari Saramäki (Aalto),
Juuso Valimäki (Aalto)
TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE (but are not limited to)
Social networks
Social contagion
Communication dynamics
Information diffusion and other spreading phenomena
Social influence
Crowd-sourcing
Popularity dynamics
Smart cities
Attention economics
Social design and user behavior
Group formation, evolution and group behavior analysis
Human mobility
Mobility and context-awareness
Economics of trust
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Contributions to the conference have to be submitted via Easychair (www.easychair.org<http://www.easychair.org/>), the name of the event there is IC2S2.
Each submission consists of an extended abstract of max 2 pages (A4).
Please give a sufficiently detailed description of your work, put at least one figure, otherwise it will be difficult for the PC to assess its relevance. Short, paper-like abstracts will not be considered. Abstracts do not need to refer to unpublished work. If the work is published or under submission elsewhere it is fine. We want to give to everyone the opportunity to present the most relevant work to the topics of the conference. There will be no proceedings, but we are exploring the possibility of having a special journal issue, where selected contributions will be published. Authors of those contributions would be invited to submit full papers after the conference. Each extended abstract will be reviewed by two PC members. Abstracts can be submitted from September the 15th till November 15th, 2014. We will do our best to have mostly oral presentations of the selected contributions, both plenary and in parallel sessions. However, there will be a poster session as well. During the submission process, you will be asked to specify whether your contribution is intended for a) Plenary session presentation, b) Parallel session presentation or c) Poster session presentation. The final allocation of each contribution will be decided by the Program Committee.
CONTACT
For any question you might have please contact Prof. Santo Fortunato (santo.fortunato@aalto.fi<mailto:santo.fortunato@aalto.fi>)
Computational Social Science Conference
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Wed 11 – Fri 13 June 2014, University of Warwick, UK
http://compsocsci.eu/
The increasing availability of large quantities of human behavioural data has drawn the interest of researchers across the social sciences, the natural sciences and engineering. This conference aims to bring together this interdisciplinary community to share perspectives and identify opportunities to gain new insights into human behaviour and decision making.
Keynotes will be given by
* Steven Koonin, NYU CUSP
* Neil Johnson, University of Miami
* H. Eugene Stanley, Boston University
The full programme and list of invited speakers can be found at
http://compsocsci.eu/programme/
Attendance at the Computational Social Science Conference is free, but requires registration. Participants may submit posters for presentation, and may also apply for accommodation in Warwick’s on-campus conference centre. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as availability is limited.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
http://compsocsci.eu/registration/
We look forward to welcoming you to Warwick!
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
* Suzy Moat, Warwick Business School
* Mark Carrigan, Warwick Business School
* Tobias Preis, Warwick Business School
Computational Social Science Conference
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Wed 11 – Fri 13 June 2014, University of Warwick, UK
http://compsocsci.eu/
The increasing availability of large quantities of human behavioural data has drawn the interest of researchers across the social sciences, the natural sciences and engineering. This conference aims to bring together this interdisciplinary community to share perspectives and identify opportunities to gain new insights into human behaviour and decision making.
Keynotes will be given by
* Steven Koonin, NYU CUSP
* Neil Johnson, University of Miami
* H. Eugene Stanley, Boston University
The full programme and list of invited speakers can be found at
http://compsocsci.eu/programme/
Attendance at the Computational Social Science Conference is free, but requires registration. Participants may submit posters for presentation, and may also apply for accommodation in Warwick’s on-campus conference centre. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as availability is limited.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
http://compsocsci.eu/registration/
We look forward to welcoming you to Warwick!
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
* Suzy Moat, Warwick Business School
* Mark Carrigan, Warwick Business School
* Tobias Preis, Warwick Business School
Computational Social Science Conference
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Wed 11 – Fri 13 June 2014, University of Warwick, UK
http://compsocsci.eu/
The increasing availability of large quantities of human behavioural data has drawn the interest of researchers across the social sciences, the natural sciences and engineering. This conference aims to bring together this interdisciplinary community to share perspectives and identify opportunities to gain new insights into human behaviour and decision making.
Keynotes will be given by
* Steven Koonin, NYU CUSP
* Neil Johnson, University of Miami
* H. Eugene Stanley, Boston University
The full programme and list of invited speakers can be found at
http://compsocsci.eu/programme/
Attendance at the Computational Social Science Conference is free, but requires registration. Participants may submit posters for presentation, and may also apply for accommodation in Warwick’s on-campus conference centre. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as availability is limited.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
http://compsocsci.eu/registration/
We look forward to welcoming you to Warwick!
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
* Suzy Moat, Warwick Business School
* Mark Carrigan, Warwick Business School
* Tobias Preis, Warwick Business School
Computational Social Science Conference
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
Wed 11 – Fri 13 June 2014, University of Warwick, UK
http://compsocsci.eu/
The increasing availability of large quantities of human behavioural data has drawn the interest of researchers across the social sciences, the natural sciences and engineering. This conference aims to bring together this interdisciplinary community to share perspectives and identify opportunities to gain new insights into human behaviour and decision making.
Keynotes will be given by
* Steven Koonin, NYU CUSP
* Neil Johnson, University of Miami
* H. Eugene Stanley, Boston University
The full programme and list of invited speakers can be found at
http://compsocsci.eu/programme/
Attendance at the Computational Social Science Conference is free, but requires registration. Participants may submit posters for presentation, and may also apply for accommodation in Warwick’s on-campus conference centre. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as availability is limited.
If you would like to attend, please register here:
http://compsocsci.eu/registration/
We look forward to welcoming you to Warwick!
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
* Suzy Moat, Warwick Business School
* Mark Carrigan, Warwick Business School
* Tobias Preis, Warwick Business School
