ABSTRACT
This reflection piece complements and expands the thoughts that have been laid out in the previous chapter and in the introduction of the edited volume. Based on reflections on the myths of big data and computational techniques, it tries to foster enhanced reflexivity and a transformed practice with regard to the use of computational techniques in the service of human emancipation and flourishing. The internal conversation based on the ethics of love offers a critique of the nexus between capitalism and positivism and the resulting tendency to reduce qualitative phenomena to their quantitative appearance, with respect to both the phenomenon of austerity and the computer-assisted tools to analyse them. It ends with a plea for disciplinary friendship between critical social scientists and computational scientists to use and develop tools that put the human at the centre of computer-assisted analyses. By doing so, it ends with the hope that the overall volume helps researchers, participants and readers in learning to practice a more active and responsible citizenship.
