Computational and mixed methods
Concepts are at the center of social science research and the starting point of any research project, particularly those seeking to test theories through empirical analysis. In this workshop, we will begin by considering the key conceptual change which has driven the adoption of new methods and computational models in the study of social life.
In particular, the course will explore two major approaches.
First, ‘network’ approaches have become central to researchers in contemporary political and social theory. Drawing on historical and empirical studies of social movements, the course will introduce key conceptual innovations and theories including those relating to ‘strength of weak ties’ and ‘small world’ arguments which explain ongoing social phenomenon. In an intensive reading of the core text alongside dataset development from online sources, students will then consider how far can digital trace data provide the empirical base for the analysis of social movements and more broadly trends in political life. Once they have the dataset, students will then begin to ‘code’ using very basic computational methods, and elementary techniques to plot ‘network graphs’ and alongside develop their skill to interpret and make sense of the emerging patterns.
Second, ‘text mining’ and ‘lexical analysis’ have also expanded, making it possible to turn large amounts of words into numbers and produce statistical analyses. We will explore these methods, focusing on the classic question of social homogamy, the union between people from the same social group. While classical social science methods enable us to work on unions that have already been ‘achieved’ (married couples), matrimonial sites track unions that are ‘in the making,’ and thus allow us to better understand individual and collective preferences in the search for a life partner. We will discuss in depth how digital methods provide a new site to understand the formation of unions between partners, compared with other ethnographic, interview or statistical survey methods. We will see that computational methods are yet another tool in the social scientist’s toolbox. In doing so, we will introduce simple tools for visualizing lexical analysis methods.
Through this practical introduction, students will come to understand how digital trace data including from APIs of social networking sites such as Twitter or matrimonial websites can be useful to make sense of contemporary social change. In doing so, students will then be able to reformulate their research questions or develop new ones, and explore how network related concepts and lexicographic tools can help them understand their subject of study from an entirely new perspective.
Teaching team
Anupam Das is an Associate Professor in Humanities & Liberal Arts in Management at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode. He teaches courses on Business Communication, Application of Linguistics, Rhetorical Analyses, and Digital Social Research Methods and Analyses. His primary research interests include Computer-Mediated Communication, Pragmatics of Human Communication, Discourse Analysis, and Pedagogy of Business Communication. He has published in various reputed international journals which include Information, Communication & Society, Language & Communication, and International Journal of Designs for Learning. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics with a minor in Information Science from Indiana University Bloomington, USA.
Mathieu Ferry is a sociologist, and currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the French Institute for Demographic Studies (Ined, France). His research interests are in the study of social stratification, class and educational mobility, and lifestyle segmentation. His projects combine exploratory statistical tools, statistical modelling, and in-depth interviewing. In this regard, he has developed a critical interest in the use of web harvested data for social sciences.
Aasim Khan has a PhD in Politics and Public Policy (Contemporary India) and is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIIT- Delhi. As a social scientist he has cross-disciplinary interests in theories of social networks, Big Data and more broadly, the impact of technology on the economy and society. In political theory he has a keen interest in concepts of governance, mediation and leadership, and he’s published extensively on these themes, interrogating their meaning in the context of digitalization, particularly in the context of South Asia. Aasim was educated in Delhi (St. Stephen’s College and Jamia Millia Islamia) and London (SOAS and King’s College London) and in 2022-2023 he was a Fulbright Nehru scholar at the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs, Brown University, USA.
Learning Objectives
- To generate a deeper understanding of quantitative methods used to study the digital;
- To contribute to student’s awareness about network and lexical analysis;
- To help students interpret digitally-mined datasets;
- To provide students with technical tools using innovative survey methods and data in a practical way;
- To incite critical engagement with the various quantitative and qualitative methods used to examine digital traces ;