Speaking Sociologically with Big Data: Symphonic Social Science and the Future for Big Data Research

Abstract

Recent years have seen persistent tension between proponents of big data analytics, using new forms of digital data to make computational and statistical claims about ‘the social’, and many sociologists sceptical about the value of big data, its associated methods and claims to knowledge. We seek to move beyond this, taking inspiration from a mode of argumentation pursued by Piketty, Putnam and Wilkinson and Pickett that we label ‘symphonic social science’. This bears both striking similarities and significant differences to the big data paradigm and – as such – offers the potential to do big data analytics differently. This offers value to those already working with big data – for whom the difficulties of making useful and sustainable claims about the social are increasingly apparent – and to sociologists, offering a mode of practice that might shape big data analytics for the future.

Researching Culture through Big Data: Computational Engineering and the Human and Social Sciences

“…We can thus see how this overall assessment is part of a wider discussion in research circles on topics and themes beyond culture, and on the relationship between the human and social sciences and the big data phenomenon, on account of the methodological and epistemological consequences of the data science model and its defense of the primacy of observational-inductive procedures. As was mentioned in the Introduction, some authors argue that the human and social sciences gain by welcoming the convergence with computational engineering, because this cross-fertilization embodies within it the ability to translate information into knowledge and to apply the skills of synthesizing, contextualizing and reflecting theoretically in order to articulate and understand the large quantity and variety of results (McFarland et al 2015;Halford and Savage 2017).…”

“…Others maintain that the human and social sciences gain by welcoming the convergence with computational engineering. They argue this cross-fertilization embodies within it the ability to translate information into knowledge and to apply the skills of synthesizing, contextualizing, and reflecting theoretically in order to articulate and understand the large quantity and variety of results (McFarland et al 2015;Halford and Savage 2017).…”

Managing Data in Digital Marketing

“…These are content published as a form of product or service reviews, responses to content published by other content, or discussions held within thematic forums. This type of data offers insight into the lives of millions of people over time, which increases the interest in this type of analysis in academia and business, especially in commerce and marketing (Halford & Savage, 2017). The use of this data in marketing activities can be diverse, but also limited to their unstructured qualitative nature.…”

And … action? Gender, knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries

“…Law et al's agenda of questioning knowledge in its multifaceted ecology has been taken up across the social sciences, for instance, in debates on digital methodology and the role of Big Data in social research (e.g., Halford & Savage, ; Ruppert, ; Ruppert et al, ); in cultural policy studies, particularly research into the production of regimes of cultural value in public policy (e.g., Campbell, Cox, & O’Brien, ; Gilmore, ; Miles & Gibson, ; D. O’Brien, ), and in critical international relations research (e.g., Aradau & Huysmuns, ). The unifying concern across these disciplines is with the ‘performative practices’ of producing and circulating knowledge ‘through which “truthful” worlds are enacted, both in the sense of being acted upon and coming into being’ (Aradau & Huysmuns, , p. 598).…”

“…Affecting social change requires thinking and knowing differently, they conclude, which in turn requires not just a mere change of narratives, but intervention in, and reconfiguration of, complex ecologies. Law et al's agenda of questioning knowledge in its multifaceted ecology has been taken up across the social sciences, for instance, in debates on digital methodology and the role of Big Data in social research (e.g., Halford & Savage, 2017;Ruppert, 2013;Ruppert et al, 2015); in cultural policy studies, particularly research into the production of regimes of cultural value in public policy (e.g., Campbell, Cox, & O'Brien, 2016;Gilmore, 2014;Miles & Gibson, 2016;D. O'Brien, 2014), and in critical international relations research (e.g., Aradau & Huysmuns, 2014).…”