In Search of Cosmopolitan Data 

and Research Methods: Workshop

8- 10 December 2014

Workshop venue: Maison Suger, 16-18 rue Suger, 75006 Paris, Paris, France (Metro: St Michel)

At the heart of Ulrich Beck’s theory is the argument that an epistemological turn is needed in the social sciences: a turn from ‘methodological nationalism’ towards ‘methodological cosmopolitanism’. There is, by now, a solid ground of theoretical discussion of the need for this epistemological turn – especially coming out of sociology and addressing sociologists. The next step is the methodological cashing-in of the theoretical premises and the exploration of socio-political reality from a cosmopolitan observer outlook. For that, a further opening towards academic disciplines beyond sociology and their premises, concerns and methods is necessary.

This workshop is part of Ulrich Beck’s ERC-Programme ‘Methodological Cosmopolitanism – In the Laboratory of Climate Change’ (CosmoClimate). The programme takes climate change as a case study experiment and sets out to reinvent the social sciences for the ‘age of cosmopolitization’. The programme aims to advance the present state of debate by validating the new theoretical, methodological and empirical tools needed for such a ‘cosmopolitan turn’. This is mainly done in the context of four empirical work packages: “Greening World Cities”, “Low Carbon Innovation”, “Cosmopolitan Publicness” and “Security Governance and Global Risk”.

The aim of this workshop is twofold:

1. First, it aims to start a conversation about ‘cosmopolitan data’ across the boundaries of social science disciplines. Are there distinct cosmopolitan methods? Is there a distinct combination of existing methods that turns research into being ‚cosmopolitan‘? What is the unit of cosmopolitan analysis? Or shall we speak of a cosmopolitan unit of analysis? Importantly, are there distinct cosmopolitan data? And, if so, how do they look and how are they to be generated?

2. Second, it aims to gather and galvanize ideas about methods, data generation and data processing that can directly feed into and advance the methodological side of the four empirical work packages of the ‘CosmoClimate’-programme. The potential of digital data and ‘big data’ has been identified as particularly interesting for the thinking about and practicing of cosmopolitan empirical research and ‘cosmopolitan data’. Hence, one of the main foci of the workshop will be ‘methodologies of ‘big data’ analysis in spheres of cosmopolitization’.