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From Data Science to Computational Ethnography: Insights from Hackers and Cabbies in New York City

Philipp Brandt, researcher at the Sciences Po's Centre for the Sociology of Organizations, will be the guest at the medialab seminar. He will discuss the rise of "data science" and use the example of New York taxis to show how this approach can help computational social sciences reveal new forms of inequality.

Event, Research Seminar

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salle Goguel, 56 rue des saint pères, 75007 Paris

Abstract

The rise of "data science" was an unusually visible episode in a long history of disputes among quantitative experts. At its center were diverging ideas for reasoning involving formalized records. Counterintuitively, this technical shift grew out of qualitative reflections among its protagonists.

In this talk, I discuss the abductive logic of inference that drove this collective process and propose an extension to quantitative research itself. I turn to New York City’s Yellow Cab industry for an illustration that reveals the relational foundations of a seemingly formal labor market. This approach offers computational social scientists a way to move beyond measuring known sources of inequality to detecting new ones as they emerge.

Biography

Philipp Brandt is an assistant professor of sociology at Sciences Po Paris and a researcher at the Centre for the Sociology of Organizations.

Practical informations

This seminar will be held in person and in English, on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in Room Goguel, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.