What does social science have to offer the data industry?

Re:What does social science have to offer the data industry? by rossdavidh on Saturday May 12, 2018 @05:17PM (#17056059)

I could believe that intensive research can be useful, but from the cases I have seen of cost-benefit analysis or city planning actually being used, no I don't like those. Cost-benefit analysis (as actually used by business) seems to leave out any strategic advantage that cannot be quantified, and city planning (as actually practiced by cities) seems to be responsible for a lot of what went wrong in the last half of the 20th century in America's cities.

Of course, it could well be that the tools of social scientists were being mishandled by amatuers; I could pretty easily believe that. But as examples, those two both look to me to be net negatives.

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Re:What does social science have to offer the data industry? by xapata on Saturday May 12, 2018 @08:33PM (#17056785)

> leave out any strategic advantage that cannot be quantified

Everything can be quantified, no matter how intangible. Perhaps you're not familiar with the research.

> city planning (as actually practiced by cities)

On the whole, city governments ignore city planning researchers.

What's your academic background? If you've never studied social sciences, you may not be aware of what the scientists are saying.

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