This book is dedicated to the explication of a joint computational methods toolbox for the study of society and its current advances. It includes AI and computational methods such as Text and Data Mining, Computational Linguistics, Data Management, and Network Analysis. Although digital methods and AI have been topics of research in society for several decades, this book is not limited to discoveries in these domains. It is also dedicated to reflecting on the methods and results within the field of computer science. Thus, we are particularly interested in interdisciplinary exchange and dissemination with a clear focus on computational and AI methods. This includes, but is not limited to, education and labor market research, ethical and philosophical considerations, and sociological challenges for AI in society.

Research on society encompasses a broad range of topics, including the computational study of culture, social sciences, and humanities. This includes subjects such as education, the labor market, history, religious studies, theology, cultural heritage, and informative predictions for decision-making and behavioral science perspectives.

Since there is a clear methodological overlap between these three domains and often similar algorithms and AI approaches are considered, this book serves as a place for interdisciplinary learning. It discusses a joint toolbox to support scholars from these fields with human and context-aware agents.

The aim of this books thus to bridge the gap between scientific domains, foster interdisciplinary exchange and discuss how research questions from other domains challenge current computer science. In particular, we are interested in communications between researchers from different fields of computer science, social sciences, economics, humanities, and practitioners from different fields.

Jens Dörpinghaus is postdoctoral researcher at Department 1, “VET Research and Monitoring” at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Germany. He is also lecturer for computer science at the University of Koblenz. His research focuses on computational social science, data science methods, and big data analytics.

Michael Tiemann is co-heading section 1.2 “Qualification, Occupational Integration, and Employment” at the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. He holds a doctorate in Sociology from University of Cologne and master’s degrees in Sociology (Düsseldorf University) and Philosophy (University of Leeds). His research interests comprise changes in occupational content, impacts of changes on the labour market, and knowledge in work. He is lecturer at the University of Bonn.