From industry over science to public policy, Big Data has sparked immense interest, raising both hopes and fears. While it has been hailed for its promises of economic prosperity, techno-scientific progress and societal advances by some, others have stressed new and emerging ethical, societal and political challenges related to the widespread adoption of data analytics in many public and private sectors.
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The core of the research is a survey of participants in mass demonstrations on February 15, 2003 against the war in Iraq. This standardized survey covers demonstrators in seven European countries and in the USA. The survey is the first cross-national survey of its kind and scope. Professor Stefaan Walgrave (Belgium) initiated the survey.
This is a joint project of the University of Bielefeld and the Social Science Research Center Berlin that studies the societal responsibility of economic elites. It is part of the interdisciplinary research network “Strengthening the integration potential of a modern society”. Financing: Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
The project deals with the early German labor movement as a carrier group of civil societal engagement between 1830 and 1880. The analysis uses definitions of civil society being a sphere between the state, the economy and the private as well as describing civil society as being specific “type” of social action. Both definitions will be applied to the object of investigation, namely the “early labor movement”. Normative and analytical elements and notions of the concept of civil society will be linked so as to reveal the varieties and the ambivalence of civil society as an analytic instrument. Therefore, the analysis of the labor movement can be viewed as a test for the bearing capacity of civil society concepts.