This course focuses on how sociological research question concerning regional differences can be analyzed with a combination of survey and social media data. To achieve this, this course will use both statistical sociological methods and computational sociology methods. Computational social science or computational sociology is an approach that combines computer science and social science to use new types and sources of data to answer sociological and socio-political questions. Primary data sources for this course are a teaching dataset with regional indicators of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and regionalized Twitter data.
Students will use the statistical software R to practice and apply the discussed approaches. Students will get access to a special teaching server to access the regionalized SOEP data as well as to the computing cluster of the Faculty of Sociology, making it possible to get some valuable experience in analyzing big data in a high performance computing environment.
The seminar will be held in English. The course credit (Studienleistung) will also be in English. Examination (Prüfungsleistung/Hausarbeit i.e. term paper) can be completed in English or German. Practical knowledge in handling data is helpful (e.g., knowledge of univariate statistics, previous use of statistical software such as R, SPSS, Stata, Python or Julia), but not required. Students will use the statistical software R throughout this course, knowledge of R is therefore an advantage, but a very brief introduction will be given to show students with no prior knowledge some resources to catch up on their own.
Frequency | Weekday | Time | Format / Place | Period |
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Module | Course | Requirements | |
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30-M-PW-M2 Öffentlichkeit, Medien und Politische Kommunikation | Öffentlichkeit, Medien und politische Kommunikation a | Study requirement
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Student information |
Öffentlichkeit, Medien und politische Kommunikation b | Study requirement
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Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
30-M-Soz-M3a Soziologische Methoden a | Seminar 1 | Study requirement
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Student information |
Seminar 2 | Study requirement
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Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
30-M-Soz-M3b Soziologische Methoden b | Seminar 1 | Study requirement
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Student information |
Seminar 2 | Study requirement
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Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
30-M-Soz-M3c Soziologische Methoden c | Seminar 1 | Study requirement
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Student information |
Seminar 2 | Study requirement
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Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information | |
30-MeWi-HM2 Medien und Gesellschaft | Lehrveranstaltung I | Graded examination
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Student information |
Lehrveranstaltung II | Study requirement
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Student information | |
Lehrveranstaltung III | Study requirement
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Student information | |
30-MeWi-HM4 Methoden der Medienforschung | Lehrveranstaltung I | Graded examination
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Student information |
Lehrveranstaltung II | Study requirement
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Student information | |
Lehrveranstaltung III | Study requirement
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Student information | |
30-SW-ESo Empirische Sozialforschung | Seminar 1 | Study requirement
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Student information |
Seminar 2 | Study requirement
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Student information | |
- | Graded examination | Student information |
The binding module descriptions contain further information, including specifications on the "types of assignments" students need to complete. In cases where a module description mentions more than one kind of assignment, the respective member of the teaching staff will decide which task(s) they assign the students.
Degree programme/academic programme | Validity | Variant | Subdivision | Status | Semester | LP | |
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Bielefeld Graduate School In History And Sociology / Promotion | Optional Course Programme |