What is Computational Social Science

Computational social science is regarded as a research method that provides an unprecedented breadth and depth of data to classify and analyze how human interaction occurs and provide a different dimension to studies of collective human behavior. Computational social science refers to computational methods and approaches to study the social sciences, particularly incorporating big data, social network analysis, social media content, and spatial data. The outcomes of computational approaches should help overcome the limitations of existing theory in the field. This chapter focuses on the term computational approach and discusses the opportunities and challenges in the social sciences.