e-Science: The view from the social sciences

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e-Science The view from the social sciences
Oxford e-Social Science Project

• Jenny Fry and Ralph Schroeder
• Oxford Internet Institute

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How can social science best support research with
novel technologies?

• Non-technological barriers to e-science e.g.
• Trust in distributed collaboration, data
  provenance, access and ownership of data,
  confidentiality and privacy in social data,
  social protocols around technical standards and
  interoperability.
• Dual complexity diversity of domain-specific
  disciplinary expertise required in developing
  solutions on one hand, and heterogeneity of
  research practices being supported by e-science
  on the other

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Mapping current social science approaches to
e-science (with illustrative concerns)
Practical/usability (How appropriation can be enhanced through refining understanding of practice, user representations, and human computer interaction) Attempted neutrality/value free (Measuring dimensions of distributed communication and collaboration)
Advocacy/steering and aligning structures (Fostering institutional, economic and legal structures that enable distributed communication and collaboration. Promoting a particular type of open and accessible e-science) Critique/reflexive or prospective (Social implications of e-science ability to deliver on claims policy)
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Examples of some earlier approaches

• Advocacy (steering and aligning structures)
• David and Spences project-based typology
• Critique (reflexive/prospective)
• Wouters and Beaulieu computation-centric
  e-science based on disciplinary analysis
• Others?

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Social and technical organization of e-Sciences
dimensions and factors

• Differences in degrees of interdependency and
  uncertainty across disciplines, as applied to
• is technology development a driver?
• what is the balance between computer science and
  disciplines being enhanced?
• disciplinary organization?
• how closely or loosely coupled are
  collaborations?

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To add to David and Spences classification of
e-science
Discipline (based on PIs parent discipline) Applied statistics Computer science Psychology Engineering Geography Environmental science Humanities computing Application area Quantitative social science Social anthropology Health Transport Business Tools Grid-enabled social databases Video based technologies Multimodal digital records (text/audio/visual) Interfaces for collaborative research Modelling and simulation Data sharing and integration
Collaborative arrangement Intra-institutional Inter-institutional Academic/commercial research laboratory Value-addedness (claims) Virtual communities Support centres/training Stimulating uptake Harmonizing practice Support for social studies of technology Collaborative storytelling New forms of digital record Evidence-based policy Mixed-method approaches Technical Infrastructure Interfaces Software (including bespoke) Middleware Portals Ontologies Wireless networking/GPS Tracking devices
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Different levels of issue based analysis

• Issues at the macro- or policy level
• Issues at the systems and networks level
• Specific issues which apply to particular
  scientific domains or cut across domains
• Issues pertaining to specific projects or cases
• Individual or isolable issues within projects

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Summary

• Non-technological challenges to appropriation
• Mapping current social approaches to e-(social)
  science
• Variation in mutual dependences and technical
  uncertainty across disciplines
• Different levels of analysis
• Can analyses of levels, typologies and social
  science be brought to bear on one another?