Norman Nie was hiking near his vacation home in Sun Valley, Idaho. When he reached the top of a ridge, he saw a beautiful vista -- and two other climbers typing e-mail messages on laptop computers.
Pundits like to speculate about how technology is changing our lives. Nie, PhD '71, wants to measure its impact -- and other trends in the modern world -- more scientifically. Using surveys, structured diaries and demographic data, his new Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society aims to apply rigor to some of the most interesting and complex social questions of the day.
A professor of political science, Nie plans one study on how technology is changing society. For example, political scientists know that public opinion gels only after people talk over a news event with colleagues around the coffee machine. "What happens when there is no coffee machine because everyone is working from home?" Nie wonders. A second project will look at how rising levels of education affect social stratification.
Nie joined the Stanford faculty in September after 30 years as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He convinced his old friend Gerhard Casper and other administrators that Stanford was the logical place for the institute because of its links to the high-tech world.
So far, eight other professors from the political science, economics and communication departments have joined the institute. With fund raising well under way, Nie expects researchers -- with laptops -- to be in the field by next spring.
