ANALYSIS CAN BIG DATA BENEFIT SOCIETY? Mithu Lucraft reports from a recent panel discussion about big data in the social sciences W
hat opportunities does big data offer the social sciences? What challenges does it entail? Does it make us better citizens? With larger data sets offering researchers the potential to look at more subtle interactions, big data is becoming increasingly valuable to social sciences, yet challenges remain. As part of UK funding body ERSC’s festival of social science, SAGE and the British Academy held a thought- provoking panel with funders, researchers, civil servants and the media, to explore these questions in depth.
Are we in a data deluge? The panel’s chair, columnist Polly Toynbee, commented that she as an individual is herself a consumer of big data. In fact it turns out that most of us are. That, said panellist Paul Woobey of the Office of National Statistics (ONS), is the main reason why we now hear ‘big data’ so often in the public arena. Yet he argued that it is an illusion to see big data as a new phenomenon. In specific sectors – chemistry and computer technology– big data has long been commonplace. What we have seen in the public domain is both an evolution of what we consider to be ‘big’, and the internet revolution, which has brought big data very much into the public domain. Although, as Harvey Goldstein, professor of social statistics at the University of Bristol, UK commented, the social sciences are not yet in the realms of big data on a scale with, say, the Higgs Boson data, in the future, datasets are going to be very much bigger.
Paul Boyle, chief executive of the ESRC
The internet has made more data available – anyone can use it, and it is even government policy to promote this.
As a live example, Farida Vis, research fellow in the social sciences at the University of Sheffield, UK commented on a weekend project she had undertaken in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. She and a colleague considered photos posted to Flickr to analyse how much of that content was real, and how much was fake. Compared with the more lengthy periods that academic research can often take, this sort of research can be done
quickly and cheaply. There is real on-the- ground application in evidence here that has the potential to be used for public benefit. Farida commented that is has particular relevance for crisis communication and journalism.
Panellists were quick to ensure the discussion did not solely focus on internet data, however. Paul Boyle, chief executive of the ESRC, commented that although big data is often associated with the internet, the realities are broader. The ESRC has a huge infrastructure, underpinned by datasets from a variety of sources such as longitudinal research studies.
An expert panel considered the role of big data in social sciences 6 Research Information DEC 2012/JAN 2013
Such big data availability brings with it a range of benefits for the social sciences. As Harvey Goldstein commented, there is the potential for more rational decision making, as there is more input from a wider range of sources. Additionally, bigger data sets allow researchers the chance to look at more subtle interactions. Quoting Twitter’s founder, Farida Vis supported this by stating that it enables the research to ‘shrink the world’ and look at micro interactions. Big data, however, poses a number of challenges. One of the most pressing is ‘what
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