Reshaping Social Reality: Digital Societies and the Data-Based Approach

Dear Colleagues,

Digital technologies and data-driven approaches are reshaping the landscape of modern societies. From social interactions to policy-making, the influence of big data and algorithmic decision-making has penetrated nearly all facets of human life. This Special Issue, Reshaping Social Reality: Digital Societies and the Data-Based Approach, explores the deep changes in social structures, behaviours, and realities brought about by the emergence of the so-called digital age.

The purpose of this issue is to critically examine how Data-Based methodologies and digital technologies are transforming traditional social science domains such as sociology, social statistics, anthropology, social psychology, economy, marketing, organization, history, philosophy, social engineering, STS studies, and related disciplines. By engaging with both theoretical and empirical work, this issue will explore the consequences of data-driven technologies on social research, governance, public discourse, and everyday life. We welcome contributions that address the opportunities, challenges, and biases that accompany the rise of digital societies from a social science perspective.

We invite submissions on a wide range of topics related to digital societies and the data-based approach, including but not limited to:

• Digital Data and Social Theory: Examining how big data and algorithms reshape foundational social theories and concepts.
• Algorithmic Governance and Social Control: Investigating how algorithms are used in governance, from social media moderation to public policy and surveillance.
• The Role of Digital Platforms in Shaping Social Identities and Choices: Exploring how online platforms shape identities.
• Ethics of Data-Driven Research: Addressing the ethical challenges posed by the widespread use of digital data in social research.
• Digital Inequalities and Access to Technology: Analyzing how digital tools exacerbate or mitigate social inequalities.
• Data Quality and Bias in Digital Social Research: Investigating methodological challenges in ensuring data quality and reducing bias in digital social research.
• Big Data and Public Opinion: Exploring how data-driven processes shape public opinion, misinformation, and polarization in digital societies.
• The Impact of AI and Machine Learning on Social Dynamics: Examining how AI-driven tools affect interpersonal relationships, communities, and institutions.
• Digital Labor and the Data Economy: Assessing the implications of digital technologies for labor markets, gig work, and the commodification of data.
• Data-Driven Policy for Sustainable Development: Exploring the role of digital data in fostering more sustainable, equitable policy-making across sectors like tourism and urban development.

We welcome papers from a broad range of disciplines, including sociology, social statistics, political science, digital humanities, and related fields. Submissions should offer original research or theoretical contributions that critically engage with the theme of digital societies and the data-based approach.

1. The digital transformation of society has generated an unprecedented amount of data, offering new opportunities and challenges for social research. As we move into an era where data-driven methodologies influence not only scientific inquiry but also social realities themselves, it becomes crucial to critically assess the intersection of data, technology, and society. This Special Issue aims at exploring the scientific background of this intersection, with a focus on how digital societies reshape traditional social science concepts like identity, inequality, and governance.
2. The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together diverse perspectives from sociology, social statistics, and related fields to analyze the impact of data-based approaches on social research. By focusing on both theoretical insights and empirical studies, we hope to highlight the significance of this topic for understanding contemporary social dynamics and for advancing the methodological tools used in social research.
3. We encourage submissions on the following themes:
   • Epistemological and methodological challenges in data-driven social research;
   • The ethics of digital data usage in social sciences;
   • Digital inequalities and the societal impact of new technologies;
   • Algorithmic governance and its implications for democracy;
   • Data quality and bias in social statistics.

We look forward to your contributions that will help deepen our understanding of how digital societies and data-driven methodologies are reshaping the social world.

In this Special Issue, Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers, article, conceptual paper or review, of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Felice Addeo
Dr. Gabriella Punziano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.