Dear colleagues,

the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Mannheim Centre for Data Science (MCDS) will host a workshop on Computational Social Science in May 2025. Please see below for details.

Thanks,

Ruben Bach

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Computational Social Scientist

Mannheim Centre for European Social Research

University of Mannheim

Workshop Computational Social Science: AI and Society – Exploring Inequality in the Digital Age

When

15.05.2025 & 16.05.2025 

Note: To allow same-day travel for most participants on both days, the workshop will start around lunchtime on May 15 and end in the early afternoon on May 16.

Where

University of Mannheim

What

Dear Researchers and Practitioners in Computational Social Science (CSS),

We invite you to our upcoming workshop on “Computational Social Science: AI and Society – Exploring Inequality in the Digital Age” at the University of Mannheim, jointly organized by the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Mannheim Centre for Data Science (MCDS). This two-day, in-person workshop is part of an annual event series that connects CSS scholars from the German-speaking area (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). As an interdisciplinary event, it addresses scholars from, e.g., sociology, political science, computer science, communication, economics, digital humanities, and data science. We provide a platform for networking, professional development, and exchanging ideas in CSS.

This year’s workshop will focus on CSS and AI: In recent years, the field has been marked by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). For example, software backed by powerful machine learning algorithms is now used in public policy decision-making; generative AI and large language models are ubiquitous and promise to benefit all.

However, there are also concerns regarding the increasing spread of AI: for example, algorithms may replicate and reinforce societal and statistical biases, those who have been disadvantaged in the past may find themselves even more left behind by new technological developments, and generative AI may be used, e.g., to tamper with election campaigns. 

This workshop will address questions focusing on the methodological and real-world implications of AI, such as…

• Individual and societal use of new technology & AI (e.g., using AI systems for decision-making in societal areas such as health or justice, public perceptions of AI, etc.)

• Questions of inequality related to individual and societal use of new technology & AI (e.g., ethnic, racial, or gender bias in AI-based decision-making, etc.)

• Questions of inequality related to scientific use of AI (e.g., access to AI and technology, resources across countries, bias in models, etc.)

• Scientific use of new technology & AI (e.g., large language models for text analysis, agent-based models for synthetic data, digital approaches to historical semantics, etc.)

What to expect

• Invited Talks: Hear from leading scholars who will share insights on conceptual challenges, methodologies, and empirical applications in CSS. 

• Panel Discussion: Engage in a discussion with experts and peers on current and future trends related to AI and CSS.

• Early Career Poster Session: Are you an early career CSS researcher? Present your research in a poster session!

• Networking Opportunities: Connect with fellow researchers and professionals to build a robust CSS community in the DACH area.

Who Should Attend? This workshop is for academics, researchers, and professionals involved in CSS or interested in applying computational methods in social science research. Whether you are an experienced scholar or a young researcher in this field, your contributions and participation will be highly valued.

Note: As the workshop features invited talks and sessions aimed at academic exchange, you do not have to submit your research to participate (unless you want to present in the early career poster session).

We look forward to welcoming you to an engaging and inspiring event!

Workshop Registration

The workshop welcomes researchers from all career levels as non-presenting participants to partake in discussing directions of CSS research and networking with other CSS scholars. Slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We will send out a separate announcement once registration for the workshop opens.

Call for posters

Additional slots are available for early career researchers who wish to present their CSS projects in the poster session. Posters may deal with any topic relevant to CSS. Please submit a short abstract of up to 300 words about the poster you would like to present to cssworkshop2025@computational-social-science.org. The deadline for abstract submission is February 16, 2025. We will try to accommodate all poster submissions suitable to the conference. Depending on the number of submissions, we may need to choose a subset of posters based on the fit of the posters to the topic of CSS and the originality of the work. Acceptance notifications will be sent out in March 2025. 

A poster award will be given out during the workshop (worth 250 EUR). The award is kindly sponsored by the German Association for Online Research, DGOF e.V. All accepted submissions will be eligible for these awards.

We especially welcome posters on:

• Best practice applications of computational methods/big data to (complex) social science research questions

• Submissions that combine established theories from the field of social science with digital data or/and computational social science methods

• Results and research designs from CSS research projects

• Theoretical and conceptual challenges of CSS research

• CSS methods and innovations; mixed methods

• Data linkage applications and methods for enriching large/online data sources

Venue

The workshop will take place at the University of Mannheim.

Organizing Committee

Ruben Bach, University of Mannheim

Andreas Blätte, University of Duisburg-Essen

Nikolitsa Grigoropoulou, University of Bremen

Valerie Hase, LMU Munich

Stefan Knauff, Bielefeld University

Simon Kühne, Bielefeld University

Dorian Tsolak, Bielefeld University

Check out the website for more information.

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