22/02/02 Wendy Maples Welcome on behalf of the O.U. Social Science Faculty

The world around us is changing. For some, this change is evidence of a shift to what has been called 'the Information Society'. The advent of computer technology; changes in patters of work and inequality; time/space reconfiguration and the explosion of culture seem to be key elements of this change.

It is the role of social scientists to investigate the world around us. This entails doing careful research on various aspects of our social, cultural, material and political lives. Social scientists have become interested in a range of issues to do with the information society. The case studies introduced in Digital Nation are examples of starting points for deeper investigations into our contemporary world.

Of course, it isn't possible to really get to grips with a topic in a half-hour TV programme or in a few pages on a web-site. Social scientists would insist on more detailed study and investigation of these topics - and social scientists would insist on using rigorous research methods! Any of these topics could well be appealing to social scientists, but to get a clear picture of their significance might involve the researcher in a series of interviews with different groups of people, a large-scale survey, a carefully prepared observation study of habits and actions, a literature review of previous research in the area, a textual analysis of various cultural artefacts, or in the compilation of various statistical data.

To conduct work of this kind requires some expertise. To find out more about the information society and about social scientist research you might like to look at the Open University course, Social Science in Action: Investigating the Information Society (DXR220).

Wendy Maples
Open University Social Science Faculty