[rohrpost] Call for Papers: Big Data

[Martin Dege]

Journal für Psychologie Call for Papers: Big Data

Big Data is the IT buzzword of 2012 and has been with us ever since. Originally it was applied to data sets that were too large, changing too fast, or simply too complex to be analyzed by traditional means of data analysis. Through the increasing availability of computers and cloud services with high calculating power, Big Data analysis has become available to a broader range of business consultants, companies, researchers and not least the average user of various smart phone based tracking applications. As an outcome of this rising popularity, Big Data attract increasing amounts of research money from public and even more so private institutions. While the concept is ultimately about size, it is the big in Big Data that points also to a qualitative difference compared to traditional forms of data collection and analysis. This new quality is usually identified as the three Vs: volume which denotes the large quantities of data, velocity denoting the amount of data continuously added to a particular dataset, and variety indicating a large diversity of raw data. It is the combination of these three Vs and ever more complex algorithmic calculating power that promises not only a more of everything but a new quality of knowledge: more accuracy in both description and prediction, knowledge about fields that could previously not be examined, be it due to the lack of appropriate technology or access, and maybe most importantly, a better understanding of the connectedness of various social domains that can be observed through the data directly, thereby reducing the need for “fuzzy” theorizing.

As promising as this may sound, the Big Data concept also sparks ample criticism from various angles. After all, the rationalist fantasy that enough data could be collected to ultimately describe the “truth” of a particular context under investigation and predict its future development is far from new. Such positivist waves have been part of academic research ever since it became formally institutionalized. And hopes for proper social engineering given the right data trace back to the technocrats movement of the early 20th century and have left their mark on the social sciences in general, and psychology in particular. Moreover, it is often criticized that Big Data conceal the politics that go into designing specific forms of data collection which in turn supposedly shape the outcomes. With this mind frame, Big Data could not be understood as slowly eliminating the need for theory in the social sciences but as a particular theory itself.

The Journal für Psychologie calls for papers about the concept of Big Data. It is the goal to decrypt the fuzziness of the term itself, to analyze its potential and pitfalls, to position it in the existing body of social science research, and ultimately to explore the political ramifications that evolve due to Big Data description and prediction of the social world.

Among other contributions, potential articles could focus on any of the following questions:

• Who should own data?

• What does Big Data mean for future research projects? What are possible advantages and disadvantages of large and fluid amounts of data?

• What are the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the Big Data concept?
• What are the political, economic and social preconditions of Big Data analyses? • What are the potential misuses of Big Data?
• How can specific biases in the collection and analysis of Big Data be uncovered? • How is the construction of theories influenced by Big Data?
• How does Big Data change the role of the researcher?
• What is the relationship of Big Data and ethical conduct?

If you would like to contribute to this special issue of Journal für Psychologie, please send an abstract of no more than a single page to martin.dege at uni.kn <mailto:martin.dege at uni.kn>. The deadline is February 28, 2015. Based on the evaluation of your abstract, you will be invited to submit a contribution. All manuscripts will undergo a peer review process.