Seeking a New Paradigm for Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities:
A message to the world from the Society of Socio-Informatics
Society of Socio-Informatics
ENDO Kaoru
1. Formation of the Society of Socio-Informatics
After a long wait, the Society of Socio-Informatics (SSI) was finally established in April 2012.
Over the 10-year run-up period, a new wisdom known as socio-informatics soared.
The newness of socio-informatics can be considered from three angles. First, it re-perceives theworld based on new universal aspects by approaching it from the basic idea of information, whichcrosses over the frameworks of natural science and social science. Second, it can analyze continuallyfrom micro-phenomenon to macro-phenomenon through the essential dynamism (bi-directionality)of information. Third, it reveals the interaction of the sociality of information and new technology, as
seen by the large interest in social media after events such as the Great East Japan Earthquake andArab Spring.
From these characteristics, socio-informatics not only forms an important discipline in itself, it
can act as a hub and platform for various established academic domains. In other words,
socio-informatics overcomes all boundaries, acts as a catalyst to tie together various ideas, and is aplace from which new civilizations and lifestyles can emerge from the conflicts of different ways ofthinking.
2. What is socio-informatics?
2.1 Why information?
The key concept of socio-informatics is information. So, why information?
Interest in information appeared in response to global changes and changes in world views
starting in the 20th century.
Max PLANCK introduced a new physics paradigm called “quantum theory” in 1900. It became
clear that the world is not assured based by the “absoluteness of being”, such as in the classicaldynamics of Newton. Physical phenomenon is nothing more than uncertain phenomenon that isprobabilistic but dependent on observer.
From this, interest grew in the concept of information as a controller of this uncertainty orentropy. Norbert WIENER (1950) defined information as “a name for the content of what isexchanged with the outer world as we adjust to it, and make our adjustment felt upon it.” Based on
this, Wiener advanced a new theory known as cybernetics, which was an important contribution tocomputer science.
Later, James D. WATSON and Francis CRICK showed that DNA has a double-helix structure in
1953. This discovery demonstrated that information, as genes passed from one life form to another,is physically expressed through DNA.
Thought-historian Franklin BAUMER (1977) describes this chain of intellectual development143as moving “from being to becoming”. Some refer to this as the “informatic turn” of world views. As
a result, intellectual paradigms to reevaluate the world, with information as their core, formed a large
movement. Such paradigms attempt to decipher phenomenon using the following framework.
1.

Each element does not exist by means of absoluteness; elements are mutually dependent

for existence.
2.

Interaction and interdependence among elements and between elements and theenvironment result from the exchange of information.
3.

Systems formed by interdependent elements self-create reflexively.

2.2 Information as the viewpoint to survey various domains
The history described in the previous section makes it clear that such a framework can beapplied to various types of domains. It applies to various phenomenon, including physicalphenomenon, biological phenomenon, and information processing systems.
Through these characteristics, the information concept provides an analytical axis that has neverexisted before for existing academic systems. For example, even in the natural sciences, current
academic fields are separated into science departments, engineering departments, medicaldepartments, and so on. They are further separated into individual sciences such as astronomicalscience, physical science, chemical science, and biological science. This way of separating academic
fields is believed to be clear-cut and completely natural.
The separation of natural science and the humanities and social sciences is a way of separating
modern-day academic fields. This is the known as the “Arts and Sciences”. The latter attempts todiscover universal and general laws for subjects that can be understood and analyzed objectively.
The former covers phenomenon dependent and recognized through the subjectivity and feelings ofindividuals that do not take to universal laws. Still, there is doubt about this state of affairs, which isconsidered to be so clear.
In Ancient Greece, all academic disciplines were placed under the name of philosophy.
Philosophy implied an academic discipline to research wisdom and principles related to the worldand people and recognition of truth that goes beyond conjecture and fallacy. Similarly, “technology”
and “fine arts”, which today are considered to be antithetical, were both expressed by the word “art”.
Even in Japan, the word gakumon, or learning, is word that covers all systemized knowledge
explained by constant principles, all theoretically constructed research methods, and so on, and it
does not separate the humanities and the sciences. The word geijutsu, or fine arts, originally did not
distinguish between technology, fine arts, and entertainment, and was used for fine skills.
In other words, there was an idea in ancient times that the world formed a whole. In contrast,
modern-day science used analytical methodology to open new horizons of knowledge and progress
rapidly. This process created a separation between the humanities and science. When this stage ofprogress was reached, there was again doubt whether this separation was absolute.
All new academic disciplines that appeared in the 20th century have undermined the conceptthat there is a clear distinction between subjectivity and objectivity and life and non-life (organic andinorganic). In this way, modern-day science has come to stress the need for a new world-view that144

integrates natural science and the humanities and social sciences again. In this situation, informatics
is considered the key field of all the intersecting sciences mentioned above.
Wiener (1950) said the following about information: “The process of receiving and of using
information is the process of our adjusting to the contingencies of the outer environment, and of ourliving effectively within that environment. […] To live effectively is to live with adequate
information. Thus, communication and control belong to the essence of man's inner life, even as they
belong to his life in society. ” This suggests the possibility that existence and phenomenon, such as“machinery”, “man's inner life” and “society”, previously considered completely separate
dimensions, can be generalized as information processes.
Our field of socio-informatics is certainly located on the foundation of such modern-dayscience.
3. The information society and socio-informatics
It has not been long since the words “information society” appeared, and the Internet permeated
our everyday life.
Information not only improves social efficiency and convenience, but it also affects the basicstructure of society and transforms the activities of the world and its people.
While this promises various possibilities and expectations, problems that must be solved andcountless obstacles that must be overcome continue to appear. The evolution of information yields
new learning domains that transcend time and space and grow on a global scale.
Because of this situation, we keenly realized the importance of socio-informatics, which treats
information in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive manner. This discipline has been studied formore than ten years by two societies, the Japan Association for Social Informatics (JASI) and theJapan Society for Socio-Information Studies (JSIS). The two societies were integrated in 2012 toform the Society of Socio-Informatics (SSI).
The SSI attempts to answer key questions generated by its pursuits, such as "What isinformation?", "How is the evolution of information technology changing human relations and social
structure?", and "What is the design of a desirable society?”
The range of subjects for research in socio-informatics is very broad, and the essays publishedin our magazine cover various themes. The following section lists some of the themes.
*Basic theory of socio-informatics*Information, economy, and cities*Laws and security of information societies*Media and culture*Communication and social relations*Regional vitalization and information and communication technology*Social applications of information systems*Methodologies of socio-informatics: Social research methods, game theory, simulations,network analysis, and more
*Information education as seen by socio-informatics
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Of course, various other subject areas are considered.
The three main objectives of socio-informatics are:
1. Solve problems in the various aspects of the production, circulation, accumulation, and use(consumption) of information in society.
2. Reconstruct a theoretical framework for social systems from the viewpoint of information.
3. Search for relationships between the new information/communication networks and socialsystems.
Socio-informatics is a new area of intellectual study.
4. Engines and leaders of socio-informatics
As just described, socio-informatics is adynamic

movement

that

creates

newknowledge.
As shown in Figure 1, there are three
engines in this movement.
They embody three approaches: basic
theory that positions the target problem
systematically; empirical proof and analysis
thatobjectively

describe

thetarget

phenomenon; and practical implementation
for problem solving.
These three approaches do not standalone, but drive each other to advance

Figure 1. The Three Engines of Socio-Informatics

socio-informatics as a whole.
Who has the main role insocio-informatics?
Seeing the fact that the Japan
AssociationforSocial

Informatics is an academic society,we should say that the researchersof Socio-Informatics naturally have alead role.
However, the term "researcher"does not apply only to people who
belong to a university or a researchinstitution.
All those who simply regard
socio-informatics as a problem that isFigure 2. The leaders of socio-informatics

here now and try to solve problems
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using a researcher’s mentality are researchers. As shown in Figure 2, Socio-informatics is open tocompanies, self-governing bodies, and anyone who finds problems in daily life.
By utilizing this open nature, socio-informatics must reorganize various kinds of intelligence insociety and design a prosperous future.
5. Publication of the English-language Journal of Socio-Informatics
The SSI publishes two academic journals. One is the Japanese-language Journal ofSocio-Informatics; the other is the English-language Journal of Socio-Informatics.
The Journal of Socio-Informatics (JSI) is the official journal of the SSI. The JSI is intended topromote socio-informatics. In a single publication per year, the JSI includes essays from various
fields, including communication, media research, information communication technology, business,sociology, economics, politics, psychology, education, computer science, and simulations.
6. Efforts related to the Great East Japan Earthquake
At 2:46 pm on March 11, 2011, a large area of Eastern Japan was seriously impacted by theGreat East Japan Earthquake. People first searched for information during the disaster. However, theearthquake also seriously damaged the news organizations themselves. This again clearly showed thevulnerability of the media.
After the earthquake happened, broadcasting and communication lines were cut over a widearea. Even in the central Tokyo, televisions and mobile phones could not be used, despite the factthat the quick delivery of accurate information is a life and death problem for residents during adisaster.
The Great East Japan Earthquake revealed issues with social communication as a whole,including the Internet and face-to-face communication, and not just the media. These are urgent
issues for our society.
Many SSI members researched the Great East Japan Earthquake and authored many essays andbooks. Examples include: Sociology after the Great Earthquake (Endo 2011); How Did Television
Convey the Nuclear Accident? (Ito 2012); How Did the Media Report the Great Earthquake andNuclear Accident? (Endo 2012); 3.11 Informatics (Yoshimi et al. 2012), and The Great Eastern Japan
Earthquake and Japanese Sociology (Masamura 2013).
In addition, a group of young researchers in the SSI started the “Salvage Memory” project asvolunteers. SHIBATA Kuniomi, a key member of the group, contributed an English-language essay“The Project ‘Salvage Memories’ On-line: Finding Albums and Photos for the Tsunami Disaster
Victims by Using Information Technology” to Journal of Socio-Informatics, Vol.5, No.1, Sep. 2012.
The following is a summary of the essay:
After the earthquake hit on the day of March 11th, 2011, a massive tsunami swept away
houses, and everything that was inside them. Photo albums were swallowed up and turned towaste. We began to sort out the photos and prepare them for the photos so that they can be
returned to their owners in Yamamoto town. The images were cleaned and digitized captures.
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The cleaning processes involve the following steps, sweep dirt and rinse photographs withwater, classify, reproduce and digitize all of the photos, and find their owners by using thesearch system, facial recognition system. The purpose of this paper is to describe our project"Salvage Memories", and discuss the two information systems.
The project of Shibata and his group is an example of the important activities of researchers forthe restoration of Japan from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
7. Subjects of socio-informatics
This final section lists future subjects of socio-informatics study.
As mentioned, socio-informatics is a new discipline for a new era. This discipline attempts toclarify the multi-modal state of the world, which cannot be contained by existing frameworks. Thisis the modern-day frontier, which means that there are a large number of issues. That is exactly why
it is academic field worth taking on.
The biggest problem may be the inter-relationship of information and reality. Socio-informatics
tries to understand the world from the viewpoint of information. However, this is different from anattitude of playful speculation about reality or the enjoyment of impractical theories. As mentioned
earlier, socio-informatics takes on a circular motion that moves from theory through practice toinvestigation. In addition to constructing theories, we must remember to make a principle ofproposals and evaluations for practical reality.
References
Baumer, F. L. V., 1977, Modern European Thought: Continuity and Change in Ideas, 1600-1950,
Maxwell Macmillan International Publishing Group.
Wiener, N., 1950, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Houghton Mifflin &Co., U.S.A.
Contact Imformation
The JSI is open to the public. Anyone can access JSI content and essay-submission information
via the Internet (at http://www.ssi.or.jp/eng/index.html).

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