ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter provides an overview of the scope of the two-volume Handbook of Computational Social Science (CSS), highlighting its key features and contributions. The introductory chapter shows how the two volumes provide the foundation for what CSS is today and points to where it is heading, outlining key debates in the field, showcasing novel statistical modeling and machine learning methods, and also drawing on specific case studies to demonstrate the opportunities and challenges presented in CSS approaches. The introductory chapter also demonstrates the contributions of the two volumes to key debates in CSS, including ethics, theory, artificial intelligence, the role of digitization of life, and data quality. A key goal of the introductory chapter is to provide a concise review of all contributions to the two-volume Handbook, discussing how each chapter contributes not only to the consolidation of computational social science as a field but also to indicate new directions for the future. We end with a set of conclusions and suggestions for future research directions.
