Situated Innovation of e-Social Science: Integrating Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Knowledge in Developing e-Social Science

This article explores the relationships between academic knowledge and the practice of research in the construction of new computer-supported research tools for e-social science. The article draws on a U.K. e-social science pilot demonstrator project, "Collaborative Analysis of Offenders' Personal and Area-based Social Exclusion," that explores the relative impact of individual and neighborhood effects on geographical crime patterns. Three main dimensions of e-social science are addressed by the project: (1) identification of new social research foci, (2) adapting research processes, and (3) developing Grid-related research tools. The integration of these dimensions shows that research-driven and user-led development of computer-mediated research using the Grid can produce relevant and innovative tools for the social sciences.