Toward Responsible and Epistemically Grounded Multilingual LLMs for Computational Social Science and Humanities

Wajdi Zaghouani


Abstract
Large language models have rapidly evolved in multilingual competence and reasoning capacity, enabling their integration into Social Sciences and Humanities research workflows. Yet existing evaluation paradigms remain anchored in task-based NLP benchmarks and fail to address interpretive validity, cultural situatedness, and epistemic mediation. This paper reconceptualizes multilingual reasoning LLMs as hermeneutic instruments that actively structure meaning production across linguistic and cultural contexts. Drawing on hermeneutics, philosophy of technology, science and technology studies, multilingual NLP research, and computational social science methodology, we develop a theoretically grounded framework for evaluating multilingual reasoning in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research. We articulate a rigorous experimental protocol with operationalized metrics for cultural alignment, cross-lingual stability, and reasoning faithfulness, along with transparency requirements tailored to interpretive research tasks. The paper contributes a conceptual and methodological foundation for responsible integration of multilingual reasoning LLMs into computational social science infrastructures.
Anthology ID:
2026.llms4ssh-1.17
Volume:
Proceedings of Shaping Multilingual, Multimodal AI for the Social Sciences and Humanities (LLMs4SSH) @ LREC 2026
Month:
May
Year:
2026
Address:
Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
Editors:
Arturo Montejo-Raez, Cristina Grisot, Joanna Blochowiak, Nikola Ljubešić, Elena Battaner, German Rigau
Venues:
LLMs4SSH | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Note:
Pages:
158–169
Language:
External URL:
https://lrec.elra.info/lrec2026-ws-llms4ssh-17
DOI:
10.63317/2mrtfpgxeerx
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Wajdi Zaghouani. 2026. Toward Responsible and Epistemically Grounded Multilingual LLMs for Computational Social Science and Humanities. In Proceedings of Shaping Multilingual, Multimodal AI for the Social Sciences and Humanities (LLMs4SSH) @ LREC 2026, pages 158–169, Palma de Mallorca (Spain). ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Cite (Informal):
Toward Responsible and Epistemically Grounded Multilingual LLMs for Computational Social Science and Humanities (Zaghouani, LLMs4SSH 2026)
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