This award provides support for a workshop on the future of observatories in the social sciences, to be held during December 2010 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The workshop will convene a group of experts to discuss how a network of social observatories might contribute to the advancement of science and how such a network might best be designed to meet this objective. The workshop will consider the potential value of a network of social science observatories, either attached to existing physical science observatories or sited independently, for advancing scientific research; criteria for siting such observatories; data that could be collected through the observatories; and data storage and data access issues. Materials to be prepared for the workshop include a background paper on existing physical and environmental science observatories and a critical review of existing sources of data for social science research.
There has been considerable past work to develop networks of physical and ecological observatories. Among those involved with these efforts, there is a growing sense that social and economic data are needed to augment the physical observations presently being collected. In addition, it has been argued that a network of social observatories could provide the infrastructure necessary to support important new interdisciplinary research within the social sciences. By providing the beginnings of a blueprint for the establishment of a network of social observatories, this workshop can be expected to have an initial impact on human-environment research and a longer-term impact on interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. Plans for dissemination to the broader community include a journal article to be prepared at the conclusion of the workshop.
The United States and the world are changing rapidly. New conditions challenge the ability of the social, behavioral and economic (SBE) sciences to understand what is happening at a national scale and in people’s daily local lives. Meetings were held in December 2010, October 2011, February 2012, and May 2012 that sought to advance the capacity of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences in terms of theory, methods, and cyberinfrastructure for the next 20-30 years. These meetings were attended by scientists and researchers from a variety of disciplines. The first two workshops focused on thinking about what a potential structure for the collection and archiving of data might look like, and, in the last two, attendees began to define the requirements for collecting data at various levels that would ultimately provide a representative picture of the United States. The resulting vision is that of a network of observatories designed from the ground up, each observatory representing or capturing an area of the United States. From a small number of pilot projects the network would develop (through a national sampling frame) into a representative sample of the places where people live and the people who live there. Each observatory would be an entity, whether physical or virtual, that is charged with collecting, curating, and disseminating data from people, places, and institutions in the United States. More input will be sought from the scientific community over the next few years for the feasibility of such a plan and how it can best meet the needs of the social sciences and society as a whole.
