Participation at the IC2S2 2025 in Norrköping, Sweden

Between July 21st and July 24th, 2025, the International Conference for Computational Social Science (IC2S2) was held in Norrköping, Sweden. This year’s event was hosted by the Swedish Excellence Center for Computational Social Science in collaboration with the Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS), gathering researchers from a wide range of disciplines — from sociology and political science to computer science and statistics — united by a shared mission: to understand the social world through large-scale data and computational methods.

The conference, known for its interdisciplinary spirit, attracted both early-career scholars and established experts. A major theme this year was the rapidly evolving role of large language models (LLMs) in computational social science — a topic that generated considerable excitement across all sessions.

The structure of IC2S2 2025 included a dedicated day of workshops, followed by three days packed with lightning talks, keynote speeches, panel discussions, and poster presentations. This format offered participants a rich and diverse experience across both foundational methods and cutting-edge research.

Clara Clipea, Research Associate at our Center, took part in the conference with a poster presentation focused on her current research: conflict-related damage prediction using satellite imagery. Her work leverages computer vision techniques to assess the level of destruction following conflict, offering critical tools for humanitarian response and policy planning.

Given the visual and geospatial nature of her research, Clara was particularly drawn to sessions and workshops related to computer vision, image-as-data methodologies, and political science. Among the most relevant events was the Planetary Causal Inference workshop — an R-based tutorial led by Adel Daoud and Connor Jerzak, demonstrating techniques for conducting causal inference using satellite imagery. Clara also attended the workshop "The Role of AI in Misinformation: Current Trends, Detection, and Mitigation", exploring how large language models are being studied and deployed in the fight against online misinformation.

We are also pleased to note that Daniel Racek, who recently joined the Center as a team lead, contributed to IC2S2 2025 while still affiliated with LMU, co-authoring the project “The Digital Authoritarian: Everyday behavioral patterns collected with smartphones predict authoritarianism”, which explores how smartphone-derived behavioral data can reveal individuals’ authoritarian tendencies.

The keynote lineup at IC2S2 2025 featured a number of prominent figures in the field, offering thought-provoking insights into both methodological innovation and societal impact. Dean Eckles opened the conference with a compelling talk on experimental design in digital environments, while Kathleen Carley shared her latest research on dynamic network analysis and disinformation. Duncan J. Watts, a pioneer in computational social science, explored the challenges of causal inference at scale. Other distinguished speakers included Laura Nelson on ethical AI and text-as-data, Brandon Stewart on interpretability in machine learning models, and Sarah Williams, who closed the conference with a keynote on data visualization and urban analytics. Their contributions set the tone for rich interdisciplinary dialogue throughout the event.

IC2S2 2025 was not only an opportunity to share and gather feedback on ongoing research, but also to connect with an international community of scholars and practitioners facing similar methodological and societal challenges. Clara returns with new ideas, inspiration, and valuable connections to push her work even further. Her participation also strengthens the Center for Crisis Early Warning’s engagement with the global research community, helping to integrate the latest computational methods into the center’s efforts to anticipate, understand, and respond to emerging crises.

We extend our sincere thanks to the organizers at the Swedish Excellence Center for Computational Social Science and the Institute for Analytical Sociology for hosting such a well-organized and intellectually stimulating event — with special thanks to Marc Keuschnigg for his leadership and hospitality throughout the conference.

Picture: © CCEW, Clara Clipea