Computational Social Science Approach to Online Community Dynamics: Discovering Collective Identity Formation through Language Models
Keywords:
computational social science, online communities, collective identity, language models, natural language processing, socio-technical systems, community governance, fairness, infrastructureAbstract
Online communities function as dynamic socio-technical systems in which collective identity continuously emerges through discourse, shared practices, and evolving norms. Understanding how collective identity forms and transforms within these digitally mediated spaces remains a central challenge for both social theory and platform design. This paper presents a computational social science framework that leverages large-scale language models to discover and trace collective identity formation across diverse online communities. We articulate a systems-level architecture that integrates natural language processing pipelines with theoretical constructs from social identity theory, enabling the extraction of community-level narratives, value structures, and boundary-making language. The discussion emphasizes structural trade-offs in designing such discovery systems, including tensions between batch and stream processing, model interpretability, computational scalability, and privacy preservation. We examine governance implications arising from algorithmic surfacing of collective identity, addressing fairness, representation, and the risk of essentializing community voices. Further, we analyze infrastructure requirements for sustainable deployment and the robustness of identity models under linguistic drift and platform evolution. Through cross-domain case illustrations spanning open-source developer communities, health support forums, and fan subcultures, we highlight how language model outputs can inform platform moderation policies, community health diagnostics, and inclusive design. The paper contributes a holistic, systems-oriented perspective on computationally studying collective identity, foregrounding the interplay between technical architecture, social theory, and responsible deployment in large-scale online environments.
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