Sociology between big data and research frontiers, a challenge for educational policies and skills

The paper focuses on the challenges posed within sociology and social research by the transformations created by the “data society”. To this end, the paper outlines some of the most significant elements for new frontier research which sociology is forced to confront also in relation to the challenges for educational policies and skills. While leading literature decries the need to promote alphabetising data, otherwise defined as data literacy, the idea proposed here is that it is necessary to work towards understanding data. An understanding that highlights the role sociology has firmly set itself since its foundation, that of studying and explaining the complexity of the relationships that characterize social life in every context and period.