{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T21:19:45Z","timestamp":1780435185273,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2014,7,1]],"date-time":"2014-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1404172800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,7,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper, we reflect on the disciplinary contours of contemporary sociology, and social science more generally, in the age of \u2018big and broad\u2019 social data. Our aim is to suggest how sociology and social sciences may respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by this \u2018data deluge\u2019 in ways that are innovative yet sensitive to the social and ethical life of data and methods. We begin by reviewing relevant contemporary methodological debates and consider how they relate to the emergence of big and broad social data as a product, reflexive artefact and organizational feature of emerging global digital society. We then explore the challenges and opportunities afforded to social science through the widespread adoption of a new generation of distributed, digital technologies and the gathering momentum of the open data movement, grounding our observations in the work of the Collaborative Online Social Media ObServatory (COSMOS) project. In conclusion, we argue that these challenges and opportunities motivate a renewed interest in the programme for a \u2018public sociology\u2019, characterized by the co-production of social scientific knowledge involving a broad range of actors and publics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951714545135","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,8,6]],"date-time":"2014-08-06T00:50:30Z","timestamp":1407286230000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":69,"title":["Big and broad social data and the sociological imagination: A collaborative response"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"1","author":[{"given":"William","family":"Housley","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rob","family":"Procter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Warwick University, Coventry, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adam","family":"Edwards","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Burnap","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matthew","family":"Williams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luke","family":"Sloan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Omer","family":"Rana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jeffrey","family":"Morgan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alex","family":"Voss","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"St Andrews University, Fife, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anita","family":"Greenhill","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Manchester University, Manchester, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,8,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-2053951714545135","unstructured":"Archibugi D, Held D and K\u00f6hler M (eds) (1998)\n                      Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy\n                      . 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