Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2018

The Big Data/Social Computing Methodological Revolution in Public Management Studies

(Abstract)

Fan Ruguo

Modern society is an intricate system of great complexity and uncertainty. The complexity of public issues and extensive “governance failure” indicate that public management studies need to turn from the thinking of an industrial society to that of an information society, to carry out methodological innovation and research on multidisciplinary integration, and to adopt the thinking of big data and social computing, in order to meet the requirements of complex public management. Big data analysis and social computing enable us to accurately identify and depict new problems in public management, effectively reducing its complexity and uncertainty; to gain a full understanding of the nature and laws governing complex public issues; and to improve public management’s predictive and decision-making ability, optimize public service, and make public management more scientific, smart and accurate. This represents the development of public management research methodology and is also a profound reform in public management thinking and behavioral modes. Big data research requires the presence of the mental world, but may also encounter the problem of “symmetry breaking.”