Digital futures? Sociological challenges and opportunities in the emergent semantic web
Digital futures? Sociological challenges and opportunities in the emergent semantic web
In the context of recent debates about the ‘data deluge’ and the future of empirical sociology, this article turns attention to current activities aimed at achieving far-reaching transformations to the World Wide Web. The emergent ‘Semantic Web’ has received little attention in sociology, despite its potentially profound consequences for data. In response to more general recent calls for a critical politics of data we focus our enquiry as follows: first, we explore how sociological analysis of the artefacts and tools that are currently being developed to build a Semantic Web helps us to uncover the potential effects of this ‘next generation’ web on knowledge, data and expertise; and second we consider what a Semantic Web might offer to sociological research. We conclude by considering some implications of multidisciplinary engagement with the Web for the future of sociology.
digital data, linked data, semantic web, sociology, world wide web
173-189
Halford, Susan
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Pope, Catherine
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Weal, Mark J.
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
February 2013
Halford, Susan
0d0fe4d6-3c4b-4887-84bb-738cf3249d46
Pope, Catherine
21ae1290-0838-4245-adcf-6f901a0d4607
Weal, Mark J.
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
Halford, Susan, Pope, Catherine and Weal, Mark J.
(2013)
Digital futures? Sociological challenges and opportunities in the emergent semantic web.
Sociology, 47 (1), .
(doi:10.1177/0038038512453798).
Abstract
In the context of recent debates about the ‘data deluge’ and the future of empirical sociology, this article turns attention to current activities aimed at achieving far-reaching transformations to the World Wide Web. The emergent ‘Semantic Web’ has received little attention in sociology, despite its potentially profound consequences for data. In response to more general recent calls for a critical politics of data we focus our enquiry as follows: first, we explore how sociological analysis of the artefacts and tools that are currently being developed to build a Semantic Web helps us to uncover the potential effects of this ‘next generation’ web on knowledge, data and expertise; and second we consider what a Semantic Web might offer to sociological research. We conclude by considering some implications of multidisciplinary engagement with the Web for the future of sociology.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 5 November 2012
Published date: February 2013
Keywords:
digital data, linked data, semantic web, sociology, world wide web
Organisations:
Web & Internet Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 348265
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/348265
ISSN: 0038-0385
PURE UUID: cf5caadc-d3b8-4cb5-9f6a-b31c3944de00
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Date deposited: 11 Feb 2013 11:52
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:46
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Contributors
Author:
Susan Halford
Author:
Catherine Pope
Author:
Mark J. Weal
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