What is big data ? Who are the actors and uses? ? Pierre-Michel Menger and Simon Paye analyze the economics of these new information flows which are transforming marketing and consumption practices, but perhaps also the social sciences.
In recent years, the new economy of “ big data » is structured around a rapid flow of innovations and applications intended to store, analyze, visualize and exchange traces of consumers’ activities, as well as the digital traces of Internet users.
Because they make it possible to profile users to predict their behavior and to persuade consumers to carry out the suggested anticipations, these traces constitute, in the eyes of companies, a highly valuable source of information.
These mass digital data are also of interest to social science research. Big data sheds new light on the social practices of individuals and networks. In order to explore the social, economic and political issues of this phenomenon, Simon Paye and Pierre-Michel Menger organized a study day which was held at the Collège de France on June 2, 2014, under the title “ Big data, business and social sciences “.
In this interview, Simon Paye and Pierre-Michel Menger both discuss the main issues addressed during this study day and provide their first conclusions.
Pierre-Michel Menger is a professor at the Collège de France, holder of the chair of sociology of creative work since 2013. He recently published The Economics of Creativity (Harvard University Press, 2014) and Difference, competition and disproportion (Fayard, Collection of Inaugural Lessons of the Collège de France, 2014). His research focuses on labor markets, the worlds of invention and creation, and the interactions between technological innovations and transformations of professions.
Simon Paye is a sociologist of work, doctor of the Institute of Political Studies of Paris and ATER at the Collège de France (chair of sociology of creative work). His research focuses on transformations in academic work, the social history of engineers and inequalities in working time. He is the author of the thesis Differentiating peers. Management of academic work and organizational embeddedness of academic careers (United Kingdom, 1970-2010)
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Big Data by laviedesidees
Shooting and editing: Cristelle Terroni