Digital Transformation in Social Sciences - What is Computational Social Science? A keynote presentation given at the Digital Humanities Morning held at the University of Helsinki, 12.05.2015 By: Lauri Eloranta twitter: @laurieloranta

1. DIGITALTRANSFORMATION
IN SOCIALSCIENCE
WHAT IS COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE?
BY @LAURIELORANTA

2. @LAURIELORANTA

3. “In short, a computational social science is
emerging [field] that leverages the capacity
to collect and analyze data with an
unprecedented breadth and depth and
scale.” (Lazer et al. 2009.)
Lazer, D. et al. 2009. Computational Social Science. Science. 6 February 2009: Vol. 323, no. 5915, pp. 721-723.

4. INCREASINGLY
COMPLEX
SOCIETY
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5. INSTRUMENTAL
REVOLUTION
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ITISFOREMOSTAN

6. COMPUTER
SCIENCE
SOCIAL
SCIENCE
STATISTICS
COMPUTATIONAL
SOCIALSCIENCE

7. Time
More
Less
• Speed and
performance of IT
(CPU, RAM,
Network)
• Access to IT /
Internet
• Amount of data
generated
• Cost of IT

8. BIG DATA&
AUTOMATED
INFROMATION
EXTRACTION
SOCIAL
NETWORK
ANALYSIS
COMPLEX
SYSTEMS &
MODELING
SIMULATION
1
2
3
4

9. FUNDAMENTAL
CHANGES IN
RESEARCH
SETUP
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10. MAJOR
QUESTIONS
REGARDING
RESEARCH
ETHICS THE BACKGROUNDIMAGE “CAMÉRA DE SURVEILLANCE”BY TRISTANNITOT
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11. NOTA
SILVER
BULLET
COMPUTATIONAL
SOCIALSCIENCEIS
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12. Computational Social Science
proposes revolutionary opportunities
for the social sciences, but it has still
some challenges in relation to
methods, interdisciplinary
cooperation and research ethics.

13. Thank You!
Questions and comments?
twitter: @laurieloranta
PS. Introduction to Computational Social Science will
run again next autumn at the University of Helsinki