Thick Big Data: Doing Digital Social Sciences

The social sciences are becoming datafied. The questions once considered the domain of sociologists are now answered by data scientists operating on large datasets and breaking with methodological tradition, for better or worse. The traditional social sciences, such as sociology or anthropology, are under the double threat of becoming marginalized or even irrelevant, both from new methods of research which require more computational skills and from increasing competition from the corporate world which gains an additional advantage based on data access. However, unlike data scientists, sociologists and anthropologists have a long history of doing qualitative research. The more quantified datasets we have, the more difficult it is to interpret them without adding layers of qualitative interpretation. Big Data therefore needs Thick Data. This book presents the available arsenal of new methods and tools for studying society both quantitatively and qualitatively, opening ground for the social sciences to take the lead in analysing digital behaviour. It shows that Big Data can and should be supplemented and interpreted through thick data as well as cultural analysis. Thick Big Data is critically important for students and researchers in the social sciences to understand the possibilities of digital analysis, both in the quantitative and qualitative area, and to successfully build mixed-methods approaches.

Business & Money

Jemielniak, Dariusz

Management & Leadership

Oxford University Press

The social sciences are becoming datafied.\nThe questions once considered the domain of sociologists are now answered by data scientists operating on large datasets and breaking with methodological tradition, for better or worse. The traditional social sciences, such as sociology or anthropology, are under the double threat of becoming marginalized or even irrelevant, both from new methods of research which require more computational skills and from increasing competition from the corporate world which gains an additional advantage based on data access.\nHowever, unlike data scientists, sociologists and anthropologists have a long history of doing qualitative research. The more quantified datasets we have, the more difficult it is to interpret them without adding layers of qualitative interpretation. Big Data therefore needs Thick Data. This book presents the available arsenal of new methods and tools for studying society both quantitatively and qualitatively, opening ground for the social sciences to take the lead in analysing digital behaviour. It shows that Big Data can and should be supplemented and interpreted through thick data as well as cultural analysis. Thick Big Data is critically important for students and researchers in the social sciences to understand the possibilities of digital analysis, both in the quantitative and qualitative area, and to successfully build mixed-methods approaches.

How networked technology enables the emergence of a new collaborative society.
Humans are hard-wired for collaboration, and new technologies of communication act as a super-amplifier of our natural collaborative mindset. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series examines the emergence of a new kind of social collaboration enabled by networked technologies. This new collaborative society might be characterized as a series of services and startups that enable peer-to-peer exchanges and interactions though technology. Some believe that the economic aspects of the new collaboration have the potential to make society more equitable; others see collaborative communities based on sharing as a cover for social injustice and user exploitation.
The book covers the “sharing economy,” and the hijacking of the term by corporations; different models of peer production, and motivations to participate; collaborative media production and consumption, the definitions of “amateur” and “professional,” and the power of memes; hactivism and social movements, including Anonymous and anti-ACTA protest; collaborative knowledge creation, including citizen science; collaborative self-tracking; and internet-mediated social relations, as seen in the use of Instagram, Snapchat, and Tinder. Finally, the book considers the future of these collaborative tendencies and the disruptions caused by fake news, bots, and other challenges.

Collaborative Society (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

Literature & Fiction

Przegalińska, Aleksandra

History & Criticism

The MIT Press

Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia

With an emphasis on peer–produced content and collaboration, Wikipedia exemplifies a departure from traditional management and organizational models. This iconic "project" has been variously characterized as a hive mind and an information revolution, attracting millions of new users even as it has been denigrated as anarchic and plagued by misinformation. Have Wikipedia's structure and inner workings promoted its astonishing growth and enduring public relevance? In Common Knowledge?, Dariusz Jemielniak draws on his academic expertise and years of active participation within the Wikipedia community to take readers inside the site, illuminating how it functions and deconstructing its distinctive organization. Against a backdrop of misconceptions about its governance, authenticity, and accessibility, Jemielniak delivers the first ethnography of Wikipedia, revealing that it is not entirely at the mercy of the public: instead, it balances open access and power with a unique bureaucracy that takes a page from traditional organizational forms. Along the way, Jemielniak incorporates fascinating cases that highlight the tug of war among the participants as they forge ahead in this pioneering environment.

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Stanford University Press

Processes & Infrastructure

In The Laws of the Knowledge Workplace, Dr Jemielniak has collected research-based chapters providing deep, interdisciplinary insight into knowledge professions, addressing issues of professional identity, emotion, power and authority, trust and indoctrination, and management behaviour. This leads to an examination of issues related to time and work scheduling and its bearing on play, family, symbolic sacrifices, and employee burn-out. In particular, it delves into the identity shifts between knowledge workers and managers, nepotism and turnover intentions among knowledge workers, the implementation of engineering projects, coordination problems in offshore production systems, leadership in virtual teams, decision support systems; taking into account the moral aspects of consequences, netnography as a tool for studying knowledge work, and innovative networks in the aviation industry. The accounts and studies in this book come from management, organization studies, sociology, and anthropology of work perspectives and are fully international in scope. They highlight the scale of the serious changes in occupational roles and to the meaning of work that is taking place in knowledge-intensive environments and give a pointer to what might constitute good and bad management practice in knowledge-intensive companies.

The Laws of the Knowledge Workplace: Changing Roles and the Meaning of Work in Knowledge-Intensive Environments

Economics

Routledge

This critical ethnographic study of knowledge workers and knowledge-intensive organization workplaces focuses on the issues of timing and schedules, the perception of formality and trust and distrust in software development as well as motivation and occupational identity among software engineers. 
The book is a cross-cultural, comparative study of American and European high-tech workplaces that addresses the issues currently of interest to both Academia and to practice and provides a rare international comparison of organizations from both sides of the Atlantic. Its conclusions shed new light on the problems typical for software projects. The book specifically focuses on, and gives voice to, the perspectives of knowledge workers rather than managers and will thus be useful to not only scholars and human resource managers from software companies, but also to high-tech professionals. 
Scholars and professionals in organization studies, management, HRM, innovation and knowledge management will find this book engaging and enlightening.

The New Knowledge Workers (New Horizons in Management series)

Human Resources

Edward Elgar Publishing

The New Principles of Management is a textbook meant for European students of principles of management. Developed basing mainly on international cases as well as drawing from international examples of managerial practices, it attempts to address the needs of globalized companies better than other, typically US-centric textbooks. The New Principles of Management challenges many of the fossilized and outdated management notions and covers the topics most relevant for modern 21st century organizations, rather than their historic developments.

The New Principles of Management (Kozminski Studies in Management and Economics)

Kozminski, Andrzej

Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jemielniak, Dariusz. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jemielniak, Dariusz

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jemielniak, Dariusz. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Thick Big Data: Doing Digital Social Sciences

Thick Big Data: Doing Digital Social Sciences

Collaborative Society (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)

Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia

Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia

Common Knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia

The Laws of the Knowledge Workplace: Changing Roles and the Meaning of Work in Knowledge-Intensive Environments

The New Knowledge Workers (New Horizons in Management series)

The New Principles of Management (Kozminski Studies in Management and Economics)