More data is available now than ever before, and the ways this data is used range from annoying to downright unsettling. Behavioral data has long been used to sell products, but over the past few years we’ve become all too aware of the new world of data manipulation and the influence tech companies are wielding within our society.
So where do these developments leave social science research? If this valuable trove of data is held only by private companies, what impact does this have on social research? Our data intensive society holds the promise of allowing researchers to address current social science questions in different ways, as well as enabling new questions to be asked. What skills will social scientists need to be able to do the social research of the future?
We posed this question to our panel during the 2018 ESRC Festival of Social Science. You can watch presentations by each of our panelists as well as lively Q&A with the audience.
