WEB SCIENCE INSTITUTE (WSI) WORKING ACROSS DISCIPLINES

When ‘Web Science’ was first studied at the University of Southampton in 2006, the term referred to a relatively new phenomenon: the idea of people and institutions moving online or living out parts of their lives in the online world. In 2024, of course, it’s completely normal for every function from shopping to work to dating to be carried out online. Beyond our personal lives, there’s no area of society untouched by technology, and the WSI’s work reflects this.

Since the WSI was launched it has created opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaborations by bringing together multidisciplinary partnerships between departments, including more than 176 multidisciplinary PhD studentships.

“Anything that relates to the human relates to web science,” explained WSI Deputy Director Leslie Carr, which is why the institute interacts with practically every discipline at the University, from engineering to history, psychology, and medicine. “We interact with many of the social sciences because they’re about our relationships, our families and our work practices. Philosophers help us understand how we find value in these machines and online experiences.

“We even interact with archaeology! Archaeologists look at the evidence regarding civilisations and how technologies were incorporated.” This observation of the past can help researchers to explore how technology might impact society going forward.

The secret to the WSI’s successful collaborations, said Leslie, lies partly in communication – “helping people to understand what’s out there and forging connections.” And these connections are built on trust. “As academics we are trained in quite siloed ways, conditioned to see some subjects as rigorous and others as messy and contingent. So, learning to respect other disciplines has been an incredibly important part of the journey.

“We need to reach out and work with others who understand different aspects of our world.”

Read more about the Web Science Institute: www.southampton.ac.uk/research/ institutes-centres/web-science-institute