Big Data - a Big Deal for Sociology?

Abstract

The paper critically examines the attitude of the mainstream sociology towards the study of big data in social sciences. Content analysis of the scientific papers published in the top-tier sociological journals ranked on the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor ssci list (2000-2017) shows that, in the observed period, the issue of big data was largely neglected. This topic is still rather invisible in the mainstream sociological thought, although it draws a lot of attention outside the academia. The analysis of big data within mainstream sociology is dominated by a critical perspective, while the application of the big data analytics is quite rare. In the concluding section, the importance of the big data study for sociology is emphasised. Moreover, it is pointed out at the risk of auto-marginalization in case of neglecting the "tectonic" changes induced by the big data analytics in the space once dominated by the social sciences.