Weaving the Web of European social science

Abstract

Even today nearly 50 years after Licklider’s observation and about 10 years after the invention of the World Wide Web, comparative social science research in Europe is hampered by the fragmentation of the scientific information space. Data, information and knowledge are scattered in space and divided by language and institutional barriers. As a consequence too much of the research are based on data from a single nation, carried out by a single-nation team of researcher and communicated to a single-nation audience. The state of affairs is preventing the development of a comparative and cumulative research process integrating and nurturing the entire European Research Area.

Yesterday’s answers to these challenges would probably have been formulated in terms of centralization and establishment of large-scale European-wide institutions. Today’s answers should rather focus on the power of emerging information technologies to encourage communication, sharing and collaboration across spatially dispersed but scientifically related communities.