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Social Sciences

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Encyclopedia of Big Data

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Social Science is an academic discipline concerned with the study of humans through their relations with society and culture. Social Science disciplines analyze the origins, development, organization, and operation of human societies and cultures. The technological evolution has strengthened Social Sciences since it enables empirical studies developed through quantitative means, allowing the scientific reinforcement of many theories about the behavior of man as a social actor. The rise of big data represents an opportunity for the Social Sciences to advance the understanding of human behavior using massive sets of data.

The issues related to Social Sciences began to have a scientific nature in the eighteenth century with the first studies on the actions of humans in society and their relationships with each other. It was by this time that Political Economy emerged. Most of the subjects belonging to the fields of Social Sciences, such as Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Science...

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Further Readings

  • Allison, P. D. (2002). Missing data: Quantitative applications in the social sciences. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 55 (1), 193–196.

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  • Berg, B. L., & Lune, H. (2004). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (Vol. 5). Boston: Pearson.

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  • Boyd, D., & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical questions for big data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information, Communication & Society, 15 (5), 662–679.

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  • Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

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  • Floridi, L. (2012). Big data and their epistemological challenge. Philosophy & Technology, 25, 435–437.

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  • González-Bailón, S. (2013). Social science in the era of big data. Polymer International, 5 (2), 147–160.

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  • Lohr, S. (2012). The age of big data. New York Times 11.

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  • Lynch, C. (2008). Big data: How do your data grow? Nature, 455 (7209), 28–29.

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  • Oboler, A., et al. (2012). The danger of big data: Social media as computational social science. First Monday, 17 (7-2). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3993/3269

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minho, Minho, Portugal

    Ines Amaral

  2. Autonomous University of Lisbon, Rua Santa Marta 56 – Palácio Dos Condes Do Redondo, 1169-023, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ines Amaral

Authors
  1. Ines Amaral
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Correspondence to Ines Amaral .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Laurie A. Schintler

  2. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Connie L. McNeely

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Amaral, I. (2017). Social Sciences. In: Schintler, L., McNeely, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Big Data. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_188-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_188-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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