  This opening editorial aims to interest researchers and encourage novel
research in the closely related fields of sociophysics and computational social
science. We briefly discuss challenges and possible research directions in the
study of social phenomena, with a particular focus on opinion dynamics. The aim
of this special issue is to allow physicists, mathematicians, engineers and
social scientists to show their current research interests in social dynamics,
as well as to collect recent advances and new techniques in the analysis of
social systems.

Physics and Society