CV
Robert Manchin is a sociologist, economist, musician by education, a social activist driven by conscience and an entrepreneurial manager by chance. During his career he played as a professional musician at the Hungarian State Philharmonic Orchestra, he was visiting professor at various universities in the US and Europe, and was briefly elected as Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Hungarian Academy of Science. For a decade he was President of the Hungarian Tobacco-Free Association. He established and co-directed with Elemér Hankiss the non-profit company “Reinventing Hungary”, and was the founding director of the Gallup International Research and Education Center. He was senior vice president of Gallup Organization in Princeton and Chairman and Managing Director of Gallup Europe in Brussels. As the Founder of the Stone Center for Applied Social Research he runs summer events and workshops in Osor, Croatia. They focus on public policy, music and creative arts. For the past ten years he served as member of the local council and Vice Mayor in Vallus, Hungary. Recently, he has lead the global project BigData in applied social research at Gallup. In November 2015 he was elected as the President of the largest European cultural policy organization, Culture Action Europe.
Research program
The various Labs within the Center for BigData and Social Complexity work with both the “digital breadcrumbs” and open data sources to understand the everyday life of individuals, communities and organizations and to facilitate cooperative research between social scientists and other researchers in order to explore the complexity of societies. The Center aims to set up global, local and regional monitors based on data in order to detect, explore and follow the strategic and social trends and to analyze with the help of analytics and network science. The common goal at the Centre is to find ways by which to elevate the quality of life of communities and citizens.
iASK-question
We doubt that with the help of big (or small) data we can find answer to the ultimate big questions of our life. However, even if through a mirror, we believe we can find the signals with the help of data that reflect the fast changing trends and conditions of our uncertain world.
What are the conditions of a good and meaningful life? What are the factors and contexts that facilitate the quality of life of individuals and smaller and larger communities?
