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The AI Turn in Sociology: From Disciplinary Transformation to Predictive Social Science
AI is reshaping sociology both as an object of inquiry and as a methodological resource. This talk examines this dual transformation through two complementary perspectives. First, drawing on a comparative analysis of elite sociology departments, faculty profiles, and national sociology conferences in China and the United States, it traces how AI has been incorporated into sociological knowledge production across different institutional and societal contexts in recent years. The analysis reveals both divergent and convergent trajectories, highlighting how scholars in the Global North and Global South engage with AI in distinct yet increasingly interconnected ways.
Second, the talk demonstrates the research potential of AI for sociology through an original case study modelling future societal instability across four countries. By integrating demographic and fiscal data with large language models, we develop and evaluate predictions concerning the structural constraints facing welfare states through the mid-twenty-first century. Together, these analyses illustrate how AI is transforming what sociologists study, how they study it, and what futures we might anticipate.
Please join either in person or online. For in-person attendees, the talk will be preceded by a light lunch at 12.15pm.
Date:
2 March 2026, 12:45
Venue:
Seminar Room, Department of Sociology and Online
Speaker:
Dr Fanqi Zeng (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
Department of Sociology
Organiser contact email address:
comms@sociology.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
Sociology Department Weekly Seminar
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Laurel Millen-Quinn
