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Institute of Computer Applications in the Social Sciences

Aims
Computer Applications in the Social Sciences is an application field of computer science and is especially concerned with the application of computer science to social science problems. Out of a number of subjects of social science research those were chosen where an increasing relevance of the application of computer science is expected. Therefore, the systematics of the established sociological subjects was not followed. Thus, with computer applications in the social sciences a new academic subject was created which can be defined as follows:
Computer Applications in the Social Sciences is the science of the societal relations of automated information processing and the information processing methods in politics and administration.

Computer Applications in the Social Sciences consists of two domains with the following representatives:
Computer Science Applications in Politics and Public Administration
N.N.
Dr. Andreas Engel
Social Science Research Methods, Modelling and Simulation
Prof. Dr. Klaus G. Troitzsch
Dr. Michael Möhring
Computer Science Applications in Politics and Public Administration
This domain has three priorities:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Human Contexts
Computer Applications in Public Administration
Organization
The three priorities are to be considered insofar as one unity, since there exists a constant interaction between the social functions of the ICTs application and those methods used in politics and public administration.
Information and Communication Technologies in Human Contexts
From the historical point of view computer science derives from two disciplines: electrical engineering in the tradition of the classical engineering and mathematics. Both disciplines have in common the principle of being value-free. The reality of the ICTs looks, however, quite different: Information and communication being original human circumstances and although they are supported technically serve as mediation and exchange between people (computer as medium). ICTs are thus embedded in existing social systems (socio-technical systems) and influences the social relations between the participants, and this in a multitude of societal areas (e.g. work, education, politics, leisure). For a socially compatible application of information technology it is not sufficient to view solely the technical aspects. It is rather necessary to look at it from an integrated point of view, where social, organizational, legal and human aspects are taken into consideration at the same time.

Beside this application context the development context of the ICTs is a social process, too. There is no developer who is still able to program successfully, without including the future user in the development process. Moreover, the development of complex software systems can only be realized in a team, so that we can also speak of socio-technical systems within the development context however, with some different meaning.

Dealing with these questions we can lay down two main courses in the lectures with this priority. On the one hand there is the classical approach to computer science and society, which can be described best as research into the effects of ICTs, and which is basically a matter of discovering and analysing the effects of the use of ICTs, like for example the problem of data protection of governmental systems, or the strain of working on a computer (Technology Assessment). During the last years the research into the design and development of software systems was added. Based upon the results of research into the effects of ICTs, it tries to develop and realize concrete design decisions for socially orientated software systems, like for example the use of cryptographic algorithms within data protection, the realization of software-ergonomic knowledge in the design of human-computer interfaces or methods for the participative software development as well.

Computer Applications in Public Administration
Computer applications in public administration is concerned with the design of administrative activities with the help of ICTs. The manifold tasks of public administration, its specific organizational forms and working methods, its special relation to politics and the responsibility towards the citizens make high demands on those information systems being used to assist administration.

The need of computer scientists increases insofar as to how ICTs are not only used for the administrative internal information and communication, organization and planning, but also how politics and the persons concerned are involved. Apart from that ICTs play a decisive role for the modernization of the public administration, recognizable in various projects in cities and towns. A current example is also the Berlin-Bonn Information Network. The public administration being the biggest user of ICTs play an important role as a pioneer and active participant in the information network in order to help the development of the global information and knowledge society.

The professional field is therefore not only restricted to public administration. Computer scientists with expertise in public administration are needed wherever official institutions are involved.

Organization
Information systems usually influence the structure and functioning of organizations, to which they are applied. Therefore, organization science together with computer applications in public administration constitutes the priority of research and education. Here, we are not only concerned with the theoretical basis, and with the description of structures, but mainly with practice oriented design concepts and project management for the introduction and further development of computer based office and administrative systems. The presumption behind this concept is that from now on administration needs computer scientists, who are able to develop tools and software systems in cooperation and communication with the other administrative staff. However, in order to realize this concept it is essential to understand the terminology and procedures as well as the organization and tasks of administration, that is, not only from the social and legal but also from the managerial point of view.

Social Science Research Methods, Modelling and Simulation
Data Collection and Data Analysis Methods
In this part the students will get a thorough education in statistics and techniques of social science data collection and data analysis. The acquired knowledge can also be applied to other scientific areas, where similar methods are used. It stands to reason that we direct our attention to those techniques of social science data processing, which depend on digital computers, as applies to survey research, the quantitative analysis of text documents, and the analysis of time series. The priority of the education does not concentrate here on the application of existing program systems, as have been created for twenty-five years in cooperation with social sciences and computer science, but on the further and new development of those systems including more recent research results in computer science. These especially include the education in modern data gathering methods applied via Internet (e.g. E-Mail, WWW) as well as the development and application of Data Mining algorithms based on the artificial intelligence research (e.g. decision trees, neural networks, genetic algorithms)

Modelling and Simulation
Apart from the education at and the development of tools for data gathering and data analysis for the purpose of empirical research in social sciences and its adjoining sciences the second priority lies in the development of tools for the modelling and simulation of parts of social reality. They became an essential part of sociological research at the latest when the works of the Club of Rome (Limits of Growth, 1972) were reported to a greater public. The working group on modelling and simulation primarily examines the so called micro models, where the individuals are placed with their interrelation in the simulation model, and multi level models, where individuals and the population to which they belong, are interrelated. Especially, micro models have been used for yet quite some time in public administration, for example to assess the impact of legislation plans in tax and transfer systems. Hence follows an interlocking not only with computer science, but also with the computer applications in public administration.

Actually, the design and development of modelling and simulation tools based on concepts of agents and multi agent systems are of main interest.

In addition to the actual development of simulation tools there is the mathematical analysis, which can be realized consistently for simple models at most times. It needs, however, such extensive knowledge, which can usually not be presumed for conventional education in social sciences in Germany. But only with this mathematical knowledge we are able to transfer the results of synergetics, a field of research which has been promoted by natural scientists for several years, to social sciences.

Some other Projects: Simulation and Internet Courses in Social Science, FIRMA



Editor: Michael Möhring