Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Zhuofan, Abramson, Corey M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06087
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912149191786496
author Li, Zhuofan
Abramson, Corey M.
author_facet Li, Zhuofan
Abramson, Corey M.
contents Ethnography (social scientific methods that illuminate how people understand, navigate and shape the real world contexts in which they live their lives) and machine learning (computational techniques that use big data and statistical learning models to perform quantifiable tasks) are each core to contemporary social science. Yet these tools have remained largely separate in practice. This chapter draws on a growing body of scholarship that argues that ethnography and machine learning can be usefully combined, particularly for large comparative studies. Specifically, this paper (a) explains the value (and challenges) of using machine learning alongside qualitative field research for certain types of projects, (b) discusses recent methodological trends to this effect, (c) provides examples that illustrate workflow drawn from several large projects, and (d) concludes with a roadmap for enabling productive coevolution of field methods and machine learning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_06087
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ethnography and Machine Learning: Synergies and New Directions
Li, Zhuofan
Abramson, Corey M.
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Methodology
Ethnography (social scientific methods that illuminate how people understand, navigate and shape the real world contexts in which they live their lives) and machine learning (computational techniques that use big data and statistical learning models to perform quantifiable tasks) are each core to contemporary social science. Yet these tools have remained largely separate in practice. This chapter draws on a growing body of scholarship that argues that ethnography and machine learning can be usefully combined, particularly for large comparative studies. Specifically, this paper (a) explains the value (and challenges) of using machine learning alongside qualitative field research for certain types of projects, (b) discusses recent methodological trends to this effect, (c) provides examples that illustrate workflow drawn from several large projects, and (d) concludes with a roadmap for enabling productive coevolution of field methods and machine learning.
title Ethnography and Machine Learning: Synergies and New Directions
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06087