Publication
In this introductory chapter, we sketch out our own subjective appraisal of the field of computational social science (CSS) in three parts. First, we trace the field’s history from its origins in agent-based modeling in the late 1990s, through the “Web 2.0” revolution and then to the present day. Second, we offer our perspective on the current state of CSS, summarizing the many ways in which exciting progress has been made, as well as questioning what we have accomplished. And third, we identify five challenges and potential opportunities for the future development of CSS: industry-academic partnerships, research infrastructure, integrative thinking, open science, and digital ethics. We conclude that CSS has a bright future, fueled in part by the large and growing array of compelling problems in the world that blend society and computation, and in part by the diverse, youthful, and energetic makeup of the global CSS community.
NetSI authors
