“Broadly speaking, the social sciences are a range of academic disciplines that studies human society and human individuals in the context of society. Long established fields such as sociology, economics, anthropology, psychology, and political science no doubt first come to mind when thinking about the social sciences. But disciplines such as education, law, linguistics, geography, gender studies, communications, archeology, and even business school fields such as management, marketing, and human resources can all potentially be categorized as falling under the broad net of social science. While this diversity of specialized fields can be an obstacle when it comes to generalizing about its nature, this diversity is both a strength and a reflection of the complexities of its domain of study. This is a point that needs to be reiterated. One of the key insights (and values) of the social science of the past half century is its embrace of complexity. That is, methodological and theoretical pluralism is what defin”

Source : Why Computing Belongs Within the Social Sciences | August 2020 | Communications of the ACM