It is now well-established that digital devices, techniques and new forms of data are deeply implicated in the re-working of social life, and this has only just begun.

At the same time, these devices, techniques and data are shaping what we know about social life, fuelling stark questions about the value of the established academic disciplines. Most famously, it has been claimed that only mathematics and computer science will be necessary in this Brave New World. Such disciplinary troubles are not new. Tracing their roots undermines both the imperialist tendencies of data evangelists and any temptation to insist on stabilising the recognised academic disciplines of the pre-digital era. Instead, this talk argues that we must stay with the disciplinary troubles that have been provoked by the digital era. Moving beyond any simple call for interdisciplinary collaboration, the talk explores computational thinking to reveal surprising similarities as well as differences from sociological thinking. Taken together, both similarities and differences offer possibilities for making something new. This line of thinking not only explains the current positioning of sociologists as guardians of ‘ethical, legal and social implications’ in digital research and innovation but shows where this should be radically extended. Far from marginal, sociology is central if we are craft shared, meaningful and effective response-abilities in the digital era.

Susan Halford (@susanjhalford) is President, British Sociological Association, and Professor of Sociology and Director, Web Science Institute, University of Southampton.

Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Professor of Sociology and Director of the International Inequalities Institute, LSE.

Established in 1904, the Department of Sociology @LSEsociology at LSE is committed to empirically rich, conceptually sophisticated, and socially and politically relevant research and scholarship. Building upon the traditions of the discipline, we play a key role in the development of the social sciences into the new intellectual areas, social problems, and ethical dilemmas that face our society today.

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