Juneteenth is now recognized as an important day in US history and is a powerful reminder that the quest for freedom and equality in the US has been (and remains to be) a long, hard struggle. As we commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on how researchers can contribute to the continued fight for inclusivity, equality and justice for all.
Read MoreAs researchers, we are part of the knowledge production system and if our research fails to represent the population, then our research is inevitably biased – but how do we know if our research is inclusive? Here are three questions that might serve as a starting point.
Read MoreAt a time of accelerating social, political and environmental crises, there is an urgent need for research methods that support social transformation. Over the last fifty years or so, participatory research has emerged as a challenge to traditional research paradigms. It has now come of age as a robust alternative for understanding, analysing and taking action for social change.
Read MoreIf we were to do a text mining exercise on all the incredible discussions at last week’s conference 100+ Brilliant Women in AI & Ethics, education would beat all other topics by a mile. We talked about educating kids, we had teenagers share their thoughts on AI in poems and essays, and exchanged views on the nuances of teaching ethics in computing and working with large volumes of social data both for computer scientists and experts from other disciplines.
Read MoreThe 2nd-4th September 2019 marked the third in a series of symposia on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science (Euro CSS). Computer scientists, political scientists, sociologists, physicists, mathematicians and psychologists from 24 countries gathered in Zurich for a day of workshops and tutorials followed by a two-day one track conference.
Read MoreThere is no right way of transcribing interviews or other types of recordings for research in the social sciences. If I were to get interviewed, I would definitely ask the researcher to remove all the ‘ers’ and ‘uhms’ from the transcript. This is exactly what a few researchers asked British sociologist Harry Collins to do, after he transcribed entire conversations on gravitational wave detection verbatim.
Read MoreToday, researchers are using LinkedIn data in a variety of ways: to find and recruit participants for research and experiments (Using Facebook and LinkedIn to Recruit Nurses for an Online Survey), to analyze how the features of this network affect people’s behavior and identity or how data is used for hiring and recruiting purposes, or most often to enrich other data sources with publicly available information from selected LinkedIn profiles (Examining the Career Trajectories of Nonprofit Executive Leaders, The Tech Industry Meets Presidential Politics: Explaining the Democratic Party’s Technological Advantage in Electoral Campaigning).
Read MoreAt CogX, the Festival of AI and Emergent Technology, two icons appeared over and over across the King’s Cross location. The first was the logo for the festival itself, an icon of a brain with lobes made up of wires. The second was for the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a partner of the festival.
Read MoreTogether with a group of UK academics, the SAGE Ocean team have been digging into where academics go to find teaching materials and what the barriers are for academics who want to share, reuse and give and get credit for the materials they produce for teaching. This post includes thoughts from the group on what’s needed to promote a stronger culture of sharing teaching materials in CSS. And we’ve curated a list of our favorite resources for you too!
Read MoreSam Gilbert demonstrates the value of big search data for social scientists, and suggests some practical steps to using internet search data in your own research.
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