Big Data and New Tasks of Sociology
Research Article
How to Cite
Krupenikova L.S. Big Data and New Tasks of Sociology. Humanities of the South of Russia. 2022. Vol. 11. No. 2. P. 50-57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2022.2.3 (in Russ.).
Abstract
Objective of the study is to characterize expert assessments and an analytical review of the results of Big Data use as arrays of sociological information that make it possible to use digital methods for its processing.
The methodological basis of the research. The main and research methods are methods of conceptual analysis of expert assessments, methods of comparison, generalization of conclusions, methods of systematization of the results of evaluation examinations, methods of data integration, methods of predictive analytics, expressed in the classification of different unrelated assessments.
Research results. The article shows that large amounts of information in the form of Big Data become important sociological initial data, make it possible to more fully study social dynamics, create new dynamic models of social reality, commensurate with digital information on its basis, and become the basis for the formation of a new sociological theory – the theory of digital sociology. For it, new methodological challenges are identified that require the substantiation of new research methods and rethinking of tools and conceptual apparatus, for example, such as network and neural modeling, thematic modeling, automatic generation of hypotheses, integration of multimodal data, key concepts operationalization, symbolization and digitalization of sociological discourse, framing and clustering of knowledge, visualization methods in the representation of explanatory procedures, relational analysis of meanings, symbolic processing of natural language and others.
Prospects of the study. Digital sociology makes it possible to study the patterns of human behavior in connection with much larger forms of conditionality than it was previously: both in real conditions, real time, and in various conditions of virtuality, both in the form of an event and in the forms of intention, action or even emotion.
Keywords:
Big Data, large amounts of information, models of social reality, digitalization, digital sociology
References
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Marres, N. (2017). Digital sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. Polity. Cambridge Press.
Resnyansky, L. (2019). Conceptual frameworks for social and cultural Big Data analytics: Answering the epistemological challenges. Big Data & Society, 6, 1, 1–12.
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Fan, J., Han, F., Liu, H. (2014). Challenges of Big Data analysis. National Science Review, 1, 2, 293−314. Available at: https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC 4236847/.
Wynn, J. (2009). Digital sociology: emergent technologies in the field and the classroom. Sociological Forum, 24 (2), 448–456.
Guba, K. (2018). Big data in sociology: new data, new sociology? Sotsiologicheskoye obozreniye, 17, 1, 213–234. (In Russian).
Devyatko, I. F. (2016). From “virtual laboratory” to “social telescope”: metaphors for thematic and methodological innovations in online research. Online research in Russia: trends and prospects. In A.V. Shashkin, I.F. Devyatko, S.G. Davydov (Eds.). Moscow: Typography Publ., 19–33. (In Russian).
Dudina, V.I., Yudina, D.I. (2017). Extracting opinions from the Internet: can text analysis methods replace public opinion polls? Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskiye i sotsial'nyye peremeny, 5, 63–78. (In Russian).
Nitsevich, V. F. (2018). Digital Sociology: theoretical and methodological origins and foundations. Tsifrovaya sotsiologiya, 1, 1, 18–28. (In Russian).
Odintsov, A. V. (2017). Sociology of public opinion and the challenge of Big Data. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskiye i sotsial'nyye peremeny, 3, 30–43. (In Russian).
Platonova, S. I. (2018). Epistemic objects and social relations in modern society. Vestnik Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. A. S. Pushkina, 3-1, 114–123. (In Russian).
Anderson C. (2008). The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Wired. 23 June. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/.
Bihani, P., Patil, S. T. (2014). A comparative study of data analysis techniques. International Journal of Emerging Trends & Technology in Computer Science, 3 (2), 95–101.
Gandomi, A., Haider, M. (2015). Beyond the hype: Big data concepts, methods, and analytics. International Journal of Information Management, 35 (2), 137–144.
Kamal, M., Vishanth, Z. (2017). Critical analysis of Big Data challenges and analytical methods. Journal of Business Research, 70, 263–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres. 2016.08.001.
Latour, B., Jensen, P., Venturini, T., Grauwin, S., Boullier, D. (2012). “The Whole Is Always Smaller than Its Parts” – a Digital Test of Gabriel Tardes’ Monads. The British Journal of Sociology, 63, 4, 590–615.
Lazer, D., Pentland, A., Adamic, L., Aral, S., Barabasi, A-L., Brewer, D., Christakis, N., Contractor, N., Fowler, J., Gutmann, M., Jebara, T., King, G., Macy, M., Roy, D., Van Alstyne, M. (2009). Computational Social Science. Science, 323, 5915, 721–723.
Lupton, D. (2015). Digital sociology. Abingdon, Oxon.
Lynch, C.A. (2008). Big data: How do your data grow? Nature, 455, 7209, 28–41.
Marres, N. (2017). Digital sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. Polity. Cambridge Press.
Resnyansky, L. (2019). Conceptual frameworks for social and cultural Big Data analytics: Answering the epistemological challenges. Big Data & Society, 6, 1, 1–12.
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Fan, J., Han, F., Liu, H. (2014). Challenges of Big Data analysis. National Science Review, 1, 2, 293−314. Available at: https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC 4236847/.
Wynn, J. (2009). Digital sociology: emergent technologies in the field and the classroom. Sociological Forum, 24 (2), 448–456.
Article
Received: 24.03.2022
Accepted: 26.05.2022
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
APA
Krupenikova, L. S. (2022). Big Data and New Tasks of Sociology. Humanities of the South of Russia, 11(2), 50-57. https://doi.org/10.18522/2227-8656.2022.2.3
Section
MODERN RUSSIAN SOCIETY
