Introduzione al Focus big data, big challenges

The Introduction presents the key themes addressed in this edition’s Focus, dedicated to the main epistemological and methodological issues connected to the use of Big Data in social research. This area of study was inspired by a Conference on «Big Data, Big Challenges» organized at the University of Milano-Bicocca by the Methodology Section of the Italian Sociological Association. The focus explores six main subject areas: the predictive power of Big Data; their relation with social theories; the ethical problems connected with their use; the quality of the Data; the integration with other research techniques; issues regarding Big Data processing and analysis.