Societies, Technologies and Social Research
- How do digitalization processes influence the societies we live in today?
- What is ‘digital inequality’ and what social groups have been most affected by it?
- What can social-media posts after a natural catastrophe or after a terrorist attack tell us about our group behavior in exceptional situations?
- What kind of opportunities, challenges and risks for the individual and for society, does the usage of modern informational technologies entail?
These are just a few of the highly interesting questions that the specialization Societies, Technologies and Social Research will be answering; whilst combining Sociology with Computer Science.
During the specialization, you will get to know the scientific research regarding the interplay between culture, social change and technology. You will learn how to carry out an empirical research project yourself, while using different quantitative and qualitative research methods. You will acquire in-depth knowledge about specific topics in Sociology of Technologies and you will analyze philosophical and sociopolitical perspectives of modern informational technologies. You will be taught how to generate datasets and how to process and analyze them with the methods of machine learning.
For you to be able to choose the specialization Societies, Technologies and Social Research, you will need to fulfill two separate requirements: prior knowledge of Computer Science and prior knowledge of Sociology. You should generally be able to fulfill one of the two requirements based on your prior studies. The other you will acquire during the first part of the Master’s Program.
The prerequisite Computer Science knowledge can be fulfilled through a degree in Computer Sciences or with the attendance of the Module 1.6. Introduction to Computer Science for students with background in Business Administration, Law, Sociology, Psychology or comparable.
You can fulfill the prerequisite prior knowledge of Sociology with a degree in Sociology or with the attendance of the Module 1.3. Introduction to Societies, Technologies and Social Research for students with Computer Science background.
The respective courses of Modules 1.3 and 1.6 can be found in the curriculum.
The specialization consists of three modules, which all together account for 42 ECTS credit points.
In the first module you will be taking an in-depth look at the use of sociological research methods. You will also be learning about the interplay between social and cultural change and the modern digitalization. The module consists of two compulsory courses.
In the second module, you will be able to choose freely from a variety of courses within three broader topics. The module is complete when you have completed at least 11 ECTS credit points. Available courses include topics such as advanced research methods or selected topics of sociology in connection with technology.
The third module consists of restricted elective courses in the field of Computer Science. You have to complete at least 11 ECTS credit points. The courses are all within the field of Computer Science. You can choose between topics such as machine learning, social media technologies, network science, recommender systems, and many more.
On one hand, you will be highly skilled to work as a Social Data Scientist and use the available digital data to research human behavior and other social topics. On the other hand, IT knowledge is being increasingly sought after in the classical sociological fields as well. Graduates will also be able to find work in fields such as Requirements Engineering and Maintainability of Software.
