This free workshop, organised by the UK Data Service, is an introduction to computational social science. It offers attendees a chance to understand and discuss what computational social science is, what it is good for, how to become a computational social scientist and what are the basic steps to follow in and ideal computational social science research project.

Scientific research and teaching is increasingly influenced by computational tools, methods and paradigms. The social sciences are no different, with many new forms of social data only available or practical through computational means (Kitchen, 2014). While to some degree social science research has always been marked by technological approaches, the field of computational social science involves the use of tools, data and methods that require a different skill set and mindset.

The workshop intersperses instruction with discussion and invites participants the chance to develop a research project idea through several steps. The workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and NO CODING SKILLS are required. That said, several jupyter notebooks are provided to allow those who are interested to develop relevant coding skills through interactive exercises on your own time.

Presenter: Julia Kasmire

• Kitchen, R. (2014). Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts. Big Data & Society, https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714528481.

Level: Any level, from absolute beginner to statistics whiz.

Experience/knowledge required: No specific knowledge required, but it will make much more sense if you are currently (or plan to) conduct social science research.

Target audience: Social scientists who are interested in or confused about what computational and empirical social science is about or who know they want to start doing more computational work but don’t know how to get started.

The event starts at 12:00 CEST.