Computational Social Science: Its Prospects and Challenges in Sociology

Abstract

Recent developments in Information Technology have drastically changed and, at the same time, enabled the accumulation of substantial digital data for our social world. An emerging field that explicates the reality and mechanisms of social phenomena using large volumes of digital data is called “computational social science.” This paper overviews the prospects and challenges for computational social science, especially focusing on its application in sociology. First, we define what computational social science means. Second, we explain the reason why this emerging new field has a special relationship with sociology. Third, we clarify where novelty lies in computational social science and discuss its analytical methods. Finally, we consider some challenges in this field.