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Computational Social Sciences

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Encyclopedia of Big Data

Computational social sciences is a research discipline at the interface between computer science and the traditional social sciences. This interdisciplinary and emerging scientific field uses computationally methods to analyze and model social phenomena, social structures, and collective behavior. The main computational approaches to the social sciences are social network analysis, automated information extraction systems, social geographic information systems, complexity modeling, and social simulation models.

New areas of social science research have arisen due the existence of computational and statistical tools, which allow social scientists to extract and analyze large datasets of social information. Computational social sciences diverges from conventional social science because of the use of mathematical methods to model social phenomena. As an intersection of computer science, statistics, and the social sciences, computational social science is an interdisciplinary subject,...

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Further Readings

  • Bankes, S., Lempert, R., & Popper, S. (2002). Making computational social science effective epistemology, methodology, and technology. Social Science Computer Review, 20(4), 377–388.

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  • Bainbridge, W. S. (2007). Computational sociology. In The  Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

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  • Cioffi-Revilla, C. (2010). Computational social science. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics, 2(3), 259–271.

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  • Conte, R., et al. (2012). Manifesto of computational social science. The European Physical Journal Special Topics, 214(1), 325–346.

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  • Lazer, D., et al. (2009). Computational social science. Science, 323(5915), 721–723.

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  • Miller, J. H., & Page, S. E. (2009). Complex adaptive systems: An introduction to computational models of social life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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  • Oboler, A., et al. (2012). The danger of big data: Social media as computational social science. First Monday 17(7). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/article/view/3993/3269/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minho, Braga, Minho, Portugal

    Ines Amaral

  2. Autonomous University of Lisbon, Rua Santa Marta 56 – Palácio Dos Condes Do Redondo, 1169-023, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ines Amaral

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  1. Ines Amaral
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Correspondence to Ines Amaral .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Laurie A. Schintler

  2. School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Connie L. McNeely

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Amaral, I. (2017). Computational Social Sciences. In: Schintler, L., McNeely, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Big Data. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_41-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_41-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32001-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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