簡介「計算社會學」：一個結合電腦與數位科技的新興社會學研究

Computational Sociology: A New Sociological Area Empowered by Modern Computational and Digital Technology

在過去數十年間，電腦與數位科技有著驚人的發展與成長，不但在資料處理與運算的能力上有著長足的進步，社群媒介的蓬勃發展與普及更主導了當代人日常生活的每一個層面。這一波數位化的革命浪潮也間接對社會學界產生了衝擊，催生了一個新興的研究領域：計算社會學(computational sociology)。本文旨在透過對幾個具代表性的研究的討論，來介紹「計算社會學」的研究旨趣與特色。我們將這個領域的研究粗略分成兩大類，第一類的研究是藉助電腦來模擬一些複雜的社會（互動）行為，來解釋一些無法鉅細靡遺地考究的歷史現象或作為理論建構的工具；第二類的研究是透過新興的社群媒介來蒐集人們真實的互動資料，以進行歸納性的分析或驗證社會學理論。為便於對這兩類研究的介紹，我們將以數個具代表性的研究為例，來闡述計算社會學的風格與未來發展的潛力。文末我們將討論這兩個研究取向在方法上的分類與操作，綜評它們的優缺點，並勾勒台灣社會學界在這個新興研究領域中所潛藏的未來發展的契機。

Recent decades have witnessed an explosive growth of modern computational and digital technology. Not only do advancements in computational power make it possible to process massive information in a split second, but the emergence of modern social media that draws on computational power also has dominated almost every economic transaction and social interaction in daily life. The article presents an introduction to a new research area in sociology that benefits from the digital revolution–computational sociology. We divide the research area in two categories: The first type of research uses computers to model or simulate complex social phenomena that are otherwise difficult to disentangle due to a lack of or limited access to real data. This kind of computational approach explains underlying mechanisms of the social phenomena in which we are interested. The second type of research, often known as the “big data approach”, uses social media to collect data or test sociological theories. This kind of approach offers an opportunity to observe natural, real-time interactions among people in different domains of social life. In the paper, we list a few representative examples of research for each category to illustrate in more detail the characteristics and merits of computational sociology. A brief methodological discussion of the two approaches is presented, along with a note on their implications for the scholarship of Taiwan.