Computational Social Sciences - Methods of Computer-Aided Social Science Research Using Current Issues as Examples

In the age of Big Data, the interdisciplinary cooperation of various scientific disciplines and Computer Science is a central prerequisite for the implementation of many innovative research ideas, but also for many professions. A new discipline, computational social science, is emerging for the social sciences that is dedicated to the description, analysis and explanation of social phenomena in the broadest sense on the basis of large amounts of data, novel data types and with the help of state-of-the-art data-processing technologies.

Text and Data Mining is an important part of this new field - in part combined with machine learning. In the working group, current social-scientific Questions are discussed and evaluated in content analysis using user-friendly analysis software (the Leipzig Corpus Miner). Participants are also welcome to contribute their own questions and project ideas. The text corpus (daily newspapers) will be provided.

The working group has an interdisciplinary orientation and is particularly intended to promote the exchange between advanced students and/or doctoral students from the social sciences and computer science. It is intended to help the participants to understand each other’s way of thinking and the possibilities of the other subject and thus strengthen interdisciplinary competences.

Within the framework of the working group, the participants design their own small research projects in consultation with the lecturers - alone or in teams. Participants are expected to take on tasks relating to data preparation and analysis as well as content classification and interpretation.

Akademie La Colle-sur-Loup

The small village of La Colle-sur-Loup is located in the French department of Alpes-Maritimes between Nice and Grasse, about seven kilometres from the French Mediterranean coast. Not only good working conditions await us here, but also French food, Mediterranean flair and the light of Provence, which inspired painters such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse. The Côte d’Azur is particularly attractive for excursions of all kinds, and cities such as Nice, Antibes, Cannes and Grasse are within easy reach.

The participants are accommodated in the holiday resort “Belambra”, where also all the work rooms and plenty of sports and leisure facilities are available.