Talk | Can social theory run like code? @Wolfson College, University of Cambridge

I look forward to sharing my thoughts on how digitalisation reshapes social theory at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Title: Digital Transformation of Social Theory Date: 25/11/2025 Venue: Gatsby Room (Chancellor’s Centre), Wolfson College, Barton Road, Cambridge, United Kingdom & Teams Overview: This talk outlines a programme to build a universal social theory machine: a […]

Release | Big data insights into social macro trends: Expanding the horizon (1800-2018)

Abstract: This article examines how big data can inform and challenge established theories and future visions of society. Utilising the most recent version of the arguably largest free online corpus, the Google Books corpus (version 20200217), we replicate and enhance Roth et al.’s (2019a) systems-theoretical methodology for analysing macro social trends. Thus extending the sample […]

Release | Expressions of untruth, suppressions of truth. A 21st century reintroduction to “Simulation and Dissimulation”

Abstract: In this article, we explore the paradoxical relationship between simulation and dissimulation. We draw on nine contributions to an eponymous virtual special issue of Futures to emphasise that overreliance on simulations or their confusion with research methods is associated with the risk of abetting academic or political dissimulation or immunization strategies that escape conventional forms of […]

Release | The great reset of management and organization theory. A European perspective

Abstract: In mid-2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the Great Reset, an initiative launched to assert, describe, and shape the direction of an epochal transition brought about by the global coronavirus crisis. Rooted in a European tradition of social theory, this article aims to articulate the broader social context of this scenario and pinpoint […]

Reblog | We have never been capitalist. Big data insights into social macro trends (1800–2000)

We think of modern societies as areligious and oriented more towards money and power. But what makes us sure that this idea is true? How can we know that secularisation, the dominance of politcs, and the primacy of money really are in the DNA of our societies? In an earlier article published in Technological Forecasting […]

Release | Big data insights into social macro trends (1800-2000): A replication study

Roth S., Schwede P., Valentinov V., Zazar K., and Kaivo-oja J. (2019), Big data insights into social macro trends (1800-2000): A replication study, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 149, 119759 [SSCI 5.846, Scopus, CNRS***, FNEGE***, CABS***, VHB***]. Highlights: Dominant theories of society are grounded on strong assumptions about the capitalist nature of the modern society Results from […]

Release | Harnessing big data for a multifunctional theory of the firm

Roth S., Schwede P., Valentinov V., Pérez-Valls M., and Kaivo-oja J. (2020) Harnessing big data for a multifunctional theory of the firm, European Management Journal, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 54-61 [SSCI 2.985, Scopus, CNRS**, FNEGE**, CABS**, VHB***]. This article has been assessed as Top 10 article co-/authored by Lithuanian-based researchers in the field of social sciences […]

Релеасе | Где же капитализм? Анализ русской языковой среды

Рот С., Трофимов Н.А., Мкртичян А. (2018), Где же капитализм? Анализ русской языковой среды в XIX и XX веках с помощью больших данных, Южно-Российский Журнал Социальных Наук, Том 19 № 2, C. 6-26. Аннотация: Изучение социальных трансформаций и исследования будущего зависят от релевантности нашего знания о современности и прошлом. Целью нашего исследования является изучение эволюции […]

Release | Was that capitalism? A future-oriented big data analysis of the 19th and 20th century

Highlights: Foresights and futures studies depend on the adequacy of our knowledge of the present and the past. Big data evidence suggests that the English language area was not capitalist between 1800 and 2000. Popular social macro trend statements ought to be regularly scrutinised so as to reduce the risk that inadequate trend assumptions are […]

Prof Steffen Roth

Big Data