Will new forms of data replace the survey: some provocations

1. Will new forms of data replace the survey: some provocations www.cresc.ac.uk Mike Savage CRESC & Sociology University of Manchester

2. Savage and Burrows 2007 argue Two major social science research repertoires - the national sample survey and the in-depth interview - gained (sudden) precedence in the 1950s, but are now rather old. The intervening years have seen huge innovation in the generation of new data and methods of digital analysis, yet sociologists have not been centrally involved in these. In the 1950s, a special effort had to be made to collect ‘social’ data, now such data is routinely produced as part of normal transactional processes, making the role of specially commissioned social research less clear. Nigel Thrift’s conception of ‘knowing capitalism’ allows us to recognise how ‘transactional data’ is both routinely produced by, and also constructs, circuits of production, distribution, exchange and consumption. The role of the social scientist as empirical researcher is thrown into question

3. What new kinds of data… • Publicly accessible web data, linked through search engine technologies • E.g. Google scholar, Google book, etc • Transactional data, deploying digital records • Tesco Club card, Amazon records, phone records, etc • Administrative data • DWP linkage exercise, health records - and ID cards • Data brokers, who have constructed assemblages of discrete records in comprehensive ‘maps’ • Experian, Upmystreet, etc. • Surveillance and monitoring data (CCTV, traffic lights, air traffic control, etc)

4. There are huge issues for social scientists in using this data Access • Confidentiality issues. • Much data is privately owned. Quality • Problematic linkages or records • Key ‘social science’ variables are missing • Rarely (and fortunately!) has a ‘hermeneutic’ component Analysis • Demands a network based, not variable based, methodology. • The challenge of ‘massive N’ data sources • Requires a focus on specific descriptive concerns. Some of the scepticism of academic social scientists towards this ‘radical data’ reminds me of their scepticism towards national sample surveys in the period 1930-1960 when they were associated with opinion poll companies. But, if social scientists don’t analyse this data, this won’t stop others from doing so! Consider the following study of phone networks, from physicists and computer scientists…..

7. Where does this leave the survey? • The survey will remain important, but as one kind of quantitative data source amongst many. Its effectiveness will need to be demonstrated vis-à-vis other data sources, e.g. by • Probing the limits of transactional or administrative data • Addressing issues of time and temporality with greater sophistication • Showing the ‘added value’ of causal analysis • The power of visualisations • We need to recognise the power of a revived politics of analysing ‘whole populations’ Social scientists should not be complacent!