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Analytical sociology and computational social science
Analytical sociology focuses on social interactions among individuals and the hard-to-predict aggregate outcomes they bring about. It seeks to identify generalizable mechanisms giving rise to emergent properties of social systems which, in turn, feed back on individual decision-making. This research...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Singapore
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6936355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31930176 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42001-017-0006-5 |
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author | Keuschnigg, Marc Lovsjö, Niclas Hedström, Peter |
author_facet | Keuschnigg, Marc Lovsjö, Niclas Hedström, Peter |
author_sort | Keuschnigg, Marc |
collection | PubMed |
description | Analytical sociology focuses on social interactions among individuals and the hard-to-predict aggregate outcomes they bring about. It seeks to identify generalizable mechanisms giving rise to emergent properties of social systems which, in turn, feed back on individual decision-making. This research program benefits from computational tools such as agent-based simulations, machine learning, and large-scale web experiments, and has considerable overlap with the nascent field of computational social science. By providing relevant analytical tools to rigorously address sociology’s core questions, computational social science has the potential to advance sociology in a similar way that the introduction of econometrics advanced economics during the last half century. Computational social scientists from computer science and physics often see as their main task to establish empirical regularities which they view as “social laws.” From the perspective of the social sciences, references to social laws appear unfounded and misplaced, however, and in this article we outline how analytical sociology, with its theory-grounded approach to computational social science, can help to move the field forward from mere descriptions and predictions to the explanation of social phenomena. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6936355 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Springer Singapore |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69363552020-01-09 Analytical sociology and computational social science Keuschnigg, Marc Lovsjö, Niclas Hedström, Peter J Comput Soc Sci Survey Article Analytical sociology focuses on social interactions among individuals and the hard-to-predict aggregate outcomes they bring about. It seeks to identify generalizable mechanisms giving rise to emergent properties of social systems which, in turn, feed back on individual decision-making. This research program benefits from computational tools such as agent-based simulations, machine learning, and large-scale web experiments, and has considerable overlap with the nascent field of computational social science. By providing relevant analytical tools to rigorously address sociology’s core questions, computational social science has the potential to advance sociology in a similar way that the introduction of econometrics advanced economics during the last half century. Computational social scientists from computer science and physics often see as their main task to establish empirical regularities which they view as “social laws.” From the perspective of the social sciences, references to social laws appear unfounded and misplaced, however, and in this article we outline how analytical sociology, with its theory-grounded approach to computational social science, can help to move the field forward from mere descriptions and predictions to the explanation of social phenomena. Springer Singapore 2017-11-21 2018 /pmc/articles/PMC6936355/ /pubmed/31930176 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42001-017-0006-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Survey Article Keuschnigg, Marc Lovsjö, Niclas Hedström, Peter Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title | Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title_full | Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title_fullStr | Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title_full_unstemmed | Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title_short | Analytical sociology and computational social science |
title_sort | analytical sociology and computational social science |
topic | Survey Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6936355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31930176 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42001-017-0006-5 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT keuschniggmarc analyticalsociologyandcomputationalsocialscience AT lovsjoniclas analyticalsociologyandcomputationalsocialscience AT hedstrompeter analyticalsociologyandcomputationalsocialscience |