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  • the coding skills bubble

    As we enter the second machine age, it’s easy to assume that coding skills will be in ever increasing demand. But this TechCrunch feature suggests both that the skills shortage will likely prove fleeting, due to the impending automation of much coding, as well as that bullshit abounds in schemes which aim to address the…

  • the dangerous distraction of tech-utopianism

    As much as I tend to disagree with Nick Cohen, he couldn’t be more right about this. From You Can’t Read This Book, loc 129-137 Today’s techno-utopianism is at best irritating and at worst a dangerous distraction, because it offers the comforting illusion that we can escape the need to fight against reactionary and unjust…

  • my brain has too many tabs open: the problem of attention in digital capitalism

    I’ve just ordered this print which I’ve been obsessed by since Su Oman showed it to me. Leaving aside the brain as computer metaphor, which I object to theoretically and yet find myself lapsing into using in everyday life, I like it because it so neatly conveys what I see as the problem of attention…

  • algorithmic alienation of aspiring asylum seekers

    Thanks to Peter Holley for sharing this with me. The Finnish Foreign Ministry has launched a “don’t come” Facebook campaign in Iraq and Turkey: The thrust of the Ministry’s Facebook campaign is to persuade young men coming from conflict-ridden areas that it’s not work the risk and expense to come to Finland, said Finns Party…

  • time use event in oxford

    This looks really interesting. I wish I wasn’t already committed that day, as I’d like to understand time use data much more than I do at present. Its deployment in parts of the acceleration literature is something that interests me more and more, the further I get into my current project: The Centre for Time…

  • rejecting the dependence of higher education upon flying 

    This is a provocative thing to encounter half way through a two week period in which I go to Copenhagen, Helsinki and Amsterdam: Academics Champion Far-reaching Reductions in Flying Group of 56 scholars launches petition calling upon universities and academic professional associations to greatly reduce flying-related footprint as part of effort to cut greenhouse gas…

  • innovation through appropriation

    From Gates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, loc 9378: Developers trying to cut deals with Microsoft often divulged their technology and/or their business plans. According to the complainants, Microsoft then used the knowledge for its own gain. The case of Go was the most widely publicized. The Silicon Valley startup, headed by ex-Lotusian Jerry…

  • the challenge of sociological writing

    In this event organised by The Sociological Review’s Early Career Forum, a panel of accomplished writers with a long history of supporting younger scholars reflect on the challenges of sociological writing. Each participant will give a short talk, discussing a particular aspect of the challenge of writing, before the panel opens up for a general discussion with…

  • social media for academics: available for pre-order!

    Available for pre-order now! See here for the cheapest place to buy it online, as well as table of contents & summary. I’ll be launching a new Social Media for Academics website in April 2016 as a companion for the book!

  • digital distraction and human concern 

    Another startlingly illuminating point in Retrieving Realism by Dreyfus and Taylor. At loc 665, they observe how Heidegger’s early work “undercuts another basic feature of the classical picture: that the primary input is neutral, and is only at a later stage attributed some meaning by the agent.” This is a familiar point but I’ve never…

  • the motivational culture of early microsoft 

    From Gates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, loc 6989-7007: Microsoft was more like a northwestern Paul Bunyan. “It’s a culture of work,” Cole recalled. “Bill would hate it when the weather got good in Seattle. People would leave early. They weren’t going to put in their twelve hours that day or sixteen hours that…

  • the fascinating crudeness of early digital rights management 

    Has the mentality actually changed? My suspicion is that these messages express the same underling disposition as can be found in the present day, now dressed up in carefully crafted ideological clothing. From Gates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, loc 6969: Late in 1985, Sheldon Richman of the Washington Times reported that his brand-new copy…

  • upcoming bird la bird events in london

    I’ll hopefully be at both of these, as well as interviewing Bird La Bird for The Sociological Review: Queer Perspectives: A Queer Portrait of a Workhouse 5 November 2015, 19:00 Ondaatje Wing Theatre, National Portrait Gallery Free http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/in-conversation-05112015.php Join Queer Perspectives resident artist Sadie Lee as she introduces a special performance by Bird La Bird. Queer Perspectives is a quarterly happening where guests identifying at LGBTQ respond to the Gallery’s Collection. If you read the Gallery History section of the National Portrait Gallery website, you will learn that the gallery is built on the site of St Martin-in-the-Fields Workhouse, which existed from 1725 to 1871. Performer Bird la Bird connects artists and individuals portrayed in the gallery with the history of workhouses, including St Martin-in-the-Fields. She uncovers fascinating queer connections to workhouses, revealing how they became a site of queer Victorian scandal. A huge thanks to Dawn Hoskins and Zorian Clayton for allowing me to once again run amok in the V&A! An Armchair Tour of the ‘Queer People’s Knick Knack Emporium Sunday, 22 November 2015  14:00 to 15:30 Lecture…

  • why the left should not support the britain stronger in europe campaign

    This is just awful. There’s a great post by Richard Seymour about it here

  • a case of you

    Just before our love got lost you said “I am as constant as a northern star” And I said “Constantly in the darkness Where’s that at? If you want me I’ll be in the bar” On the back of a cartoon coaster In the blue TV screen light I drew a map of Canada Oh…

  • the esoteric appeal of tony giddens

    From How to become an internationally famous British social theorist by Stewart Clegg, 585-586: “Giddens’s later concerns with structure and agency allow him to tap into many prestigious intellectual products as resources, such as linguistics, analytical philosophy and the Heideggerian tradition. These connections allow for far great consumption in more differentiated markets. The vague term…

  • how to shift sociological product: lessons from the career of tony giddens

    Taking the lead from Peter Walsh’s laudible work on academic celebrity, here’s some lessons from the career of Tony Giddens which I inferred from this excellent review article Peter pointed me towards, coupled with my own reading of Giddens, who was the major protagonist for my PhD: Choose your targets well. Take early aim at…

  • liberating yourself from leisure activities

    I just came across this advert in Dublin advert. On the surface, it’s interesting on a straight forwardly chronopolitical level: with sufficient resources, it’s increasingly possible to outsource tasks for others in order to save yourself time. But what stood out to me about this was the increasingly formal category of ‘relaxation’: it’s becoming that which…

  • must not sleep, must warn others

  • dear academic hive mind: help me produce a comprehensive list of critiques of margaret archer’s work

    I’m trying to put together a comprehensive list of critiques of Margaret Archer’s work. Any help would be appreciated! If you could e-mail me, leave them as a comment or tweet a link then I’ll add them to this list: Defining personal reflexivity: A critical reading of Archer’s approach. European Journal of Social Theory http://est.sagepub.com/content/18/1/60.short Reflexivity as…

  • the 2015/16 @sociowarwick seminar series

    This year’s seminar series in the Sociology department at Warwick looks like an interesting mix:

  • workshop and symposium: the question of the human in social theory and social research

    25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick  This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human futures, this is an invitation to reconsider the idea that social life itself is predicated…

  • the question of the human in social theory and social research

    25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human futures, this is an invitation to reconsider the idea that social life itself is predicated…

  • “work hard to find something that fascinates you”: richard feynman’s advice to students

    I’ve found some lovely snippets from this book of Richard Feynman’s letters after only a few pages: “Work hard to find something that fascinates you” “study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible” “I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which…

  • another special issue: social media and protest identity

    As if my reading list for the new project hadn’t grown enough over recent weeks, I just stumbled across this fascinating looking special issue of I,C,S co-edited by Paolo Gerbaudo: SOCIAL MEDIA AND PROTEST IDENTITIES Special Issue of Information, Communication & Society  – Volume 18, Issue 8, 2015 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/18/8#.Ve3KmHvSiKx edited by Paolo Gerbaudo and Emiliano Treré…

  • the acceleration of consumption 

    Ironically, I had to wait to take a picture of this after initially seeing it, as it was on a billboard that rotates every 10 seconds:   

  • the pre-history of the internet of things 

    I had no idea how long this notion had been around for. Blair Newman was a notoriously drug addled technologist (who once tried to claim cocaine as a business expense) into whose failed venture Microsoft ploughed $50,000 in the late 70s. At the same time, he was also kicking around the idea of an architecture…

  • the preoccupations of life hackers

    To celebrate their 10th birthday, Life Hacker have compiled the ten most popular posts to have featured on their site, as measured by unique visits. They’re actually much more practical and much less obscure than some of the stuff that I’ve seen on there over the years: http://lifehacker.com/top-10-lifehacker-posts-of-all-time-1682801558/1733843249 I sometimes overstate my case about life…

  • before google and their staff perks, came microsoft and its free drinks

    Quoted from Gates, by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, loc 3012-3032: Slaving over computers and shouting about them can be thirsty work. Gates eventually instructed Miriam Lubow to keep Microsoft supplied with Coca-Cola. When a six-pack disappeared inside of five minutes, Bill explained that he was thinking more in terms of a case. “I had no…

  • the politics of discretionary effort 

    Since first encountering the notion of discretionary effort, I’ve been fascinated by it. This is a definition I found on page one of Google: Discretionary effort is the level of effort people could give if they wanted to, but above and beyond the minimum required. Many organizations manage performance in such a way that motivates…

  • here we go, happy holidays

    Here we go, happy holidays July 4th, 1981, candles of a Roman ilk Unloaded from a chevy truck Into the home her folks had built Patio was charcoals and extended fam in folding chairs Safely arced around the yard to focus on the smoking flares Couple cousins, uncles, aunts, mostly grown-ups, couple brats Baby Ruby’s…

  • the backstory to creative work

    I just came across this series of videos in which Aesop Rock explains the backstory to his album Skelethon. I’m struck by the thought that there’s no piece of creative work I care about that wouldn’t leave me interested to hear such a story about it. Particularly when it has this degree of granularity, offering…

  • workshop and symposium: the question of the human in social theory and social research

    25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick  This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human futures, this is an invitation to reconsider the idea that social life itself is predicated…

  • the hostage taking capacity of banks 

    From Europe Entrapped by Claus Offe, pg 16-17. Recognition of this fact, as well as recognition of its recognition by non-financial agents, needs to underpin any adequate analysis of depoliticisation: Financial institutions are first and foremost debtors , owing assets to myriads of private and public claimants. Therefore, if big banks go under, many other…

  • reasons for the commitment of capital to the european project

    From Europe Entrapped by Clause Offe, pg 13. If this analysis is accepted then I find it difficult to see how a leftist commitment to the EU can be sustained: (a) Competitive advantages can be expected from economies of scale, given the increase in market size and the reduction in transaction costs;  (b) While regulation…

  • how to normalise ubiquitous surveillance 

    Present it as a technology for ensuring services are “as individual as you are”. I don’t think this Barclays advert is selling surveillance but I think their advertising strategy is something we will begin to see ever more of in coming years.    

  • over-reach by unelected technocrats

    This is the debate which the Financial Times says has been prompted by Mark Carney’s intervention on climate change earlier in the week. His point seemed rather incisive to me, observing that “Since the 1980s the number of registered weather-related loss events has tripled” and that furthermore “Inflation-adjusted insurance losses from these events have increased from an…

  • aesop waits – tom shall pass (aesop rock vs tom waits)

  • welcome to nerd rap

  • the cruel optimism of the nine to fivers anthem

    I love this track by Aesop Rock. It occurred to me earlier how well it articulates the pleasure of doing what you love (the pastimes / That we have harbored based solely on the fact / That it makes us smile if it sounds dope) but potentially in a way which contributes to the mystification of doing what…

  • interrogating internships: unpaid work, creative industries, and higher education

    This looks like a great special issue of tripleC. I’m going to get started on it as soon as I finish this special issue of The Sociological Review on Gender & Creative Labour. I did an interview with the editors of this issue & it left me aware that I’m even more interested in these…

  • fiction and the social imaginary

      This event by David Beer at York looks fantastic. I’ve just submitted an abstract to talk about how representations of techno-fascism, post-capitalism and collapse can be used as a resource for social theorising.

  • surviving life in the accelerated academy: prospects and problems for digital scholarship

    Here’s a link to the podcast of an invited talk I did at the Society for Research Into Higher Education last week: Surviving life in the accelerated academy: prospects and problems for digital scholarship In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the stress and anxiety of academic life. This developing discourse has an ambivalent…

  • the capture of the political class 

    Joseph Stiglitz quoted in The Rich: a 2000 Year History by John Kampfner, pg 386: Virtually all US senators, and most of the Representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 per cent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 per cent, and know that if they…

  • the distracted people and fragile movements of digital capitalism

    Notes for the talk I’m doing a couple of times next month. First at the Political Agency in the Digital World conference in Denmark then at the Global Cultures of Contestation workshop in Amsterdam. Given I’m going to these places without funding to get feedback, I can’t stress enough how keen for pointers & ideas I…

  • things I’ve been reading recently #13

    Race Against The Machine by Erik Brynjolfsson Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday Liquid Surveillance by Zygmunt Bauman and David Lyon Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy by Gabriella Coleman The Fear Index by Robert Harris Graphic Novels:  The Superior Iron Man volume 2 The Fade Out Act 2 Sex book 2

  • register for the accelerated academy

    Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague (Vila Lanna) Organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and supported by the Strategy AV21. Register and get more information at http://accelerated.academy Powered by Eventbrite There is little doubt that science and knowledge production are presently undergoing dramatic and multi-layered transformations…

  • Digital footprints

    HT to Jack Palmer for this very nicely produced video, introducing the idea of the digital footprint: When I can bring myself to write about social media again, I intend to blog a lot about this. I had some interesting ideas in the final stages of finishing Social Media for Academics, not all of which…

  • good cafes in manchester to work in

    I asked this question earlier on Twitter and received an excellent range of responses. For my own convenience, here’s a list of the recommended cafes that I’m planning to try out over the coming weeks: @mark_carrigan Cornerhouse cafe/gallery used to be my go to place when I lived in Manchester but havent been since its…

  • the sociology of the camp

     Zygmunt Bauman in Liquid Surveillance, pg 64: By definition, the idea of ‘transition’ stands for a finite process, a time- span with clearly drawn starting and finishing lines – a passage from a spatial, temporal, or spatial and temporal, ‘here’ to a ‘there’; but these are precisely the attributes denied to the condition of ‘being…

  • if I can’t stick around here and fight them, I’ll take my last fucking breath to my grave just to spite them

  • registration now open: power, acceleration and metrics in academic life

    Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague (Vila Lanna) Organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and supported by the Strategy AV21. Register and get more information at http://accelerated.academy Powered by Eventbrite There is little doubt that science and knowledge production are presently undergoing dramatic and multi-layered transformations…

  • Felix & Adelita

    She called him Felix Which meant ‘lucky’ to her He was a middle-distance runner She didn’t take him seriously But shifted in her seat when he walked by He thought her plain But sensual in some way She licked the corner of her mouth thoughtfully Wore her skirts above the knee He told her a…

  • the astroturfing industry 

    From Edward Walker’s Grassroots For Hire pg 6-7: Today, more and more advocacy is being driven not by the local organizing of autonomous citizens, but by the efforts of paid consultants that organizations like these for- profit colleges hire to help them activate receptive members of the public on their behalf. Grassroots for Hire reveals…

  • on fragile movements

    The notion of fragile movements is an integral part of my new project. I’ve tried to explain it at various points on the blog, as well as in a book chapter which will be published as part of the Centre for Social Ontology’s annual Social Morphogenesis series. But I just encountered a really apt description of the…

  • the agonistic politics of anonymous 

    I’ve recently been writing about the fragility of many contemporary movements: the organisational weakness that can emerge from digitally mediated assembly because the logistical labour formerly necessary to bring people together provided an important foundation for collective reflexivity. Collective projects become harder to sustain without regular face-to-face meetings, shared practical challenges and other forms of…

  • ‘The UK is finished’: Owen Jones meets Peter Hitchens

  • things I’ve been reading recently #12

    The New Prophets of Capital by Nicole Aschoff Big Short by Michael Lewis Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich by Chrystia Freeland The Super-Rich Shall Inherit the Earth by Stephen Armstrong Post-Capitalism: A Guide To Our Future by Paul Mason Fragrant Harbour by John Lanchester Future by…

  • the intensification of work in the creative industries

    In a recent monograph published by The Sociological Review, Bridget Conor, Rosalind Gill and Stephanie Taylor edited a collection of papers looking at the significance of gender in the labour relations of the contemporary creative industries. I’m interested in this as part of my Digital Capitalism project because a phenomenon that’s central to my analysis,…

  • upwards over the mountain

    Mother don’t worry, I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed Mother don’t worry, I’ve got some money I saved for the weekend Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body So may the sunrise…

  • The fiction future of faculty: September 16th in Manchester

    I’m organising a design fiction event in Manchester on September 16th, with James Duggan and Joseph Lindley. It’ll be great. You can register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-fiction-future-of-faculty-an-afternoon-of-sociological-design-fiction-tickets-18169546603 The ability of storytelling to help us envision and discuss a gamut of plausible futures, from dystopian visions to everyday utopias, is increasingly being harnessed using the nascent practice of ‘design…

  • the ecology of content 

    From Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, pg 19: There are thousands of bloggers scouring the web looking for things to write about. They must write several times each day. They search Twitter, Facebook, comments sections, press releases, rival blogs, and other sources to develop their material. Above them are hundreds of…

  • the horatio alger myth

    This fascinating feature of American cultural history was entirely unknown to me, until The New Prophets of Capital, loc 1051. I wonder how Alger would have faired in an environment saturated by social media? Horatio Alger, a sensitive Harvard alum, was horrified by the ills of industrial capitalism in New York City during the late…

  • the origins of digital capitalism 

    From The New Prophets of Capital by Nicole Aschoff, loc 730-744: At the same time, society’s greatest inventions and innovations of the past two hundred years— rockets to the moon, penicillin, computers, the internet— were not bestowed upon us by lone entrepreneurs and firms operating in free markets under conditions of healthy competition. They were…

  • this is not a pipe

    This is not a chair That is not a table This is not a cup That is not a kettle It is not raining My shoe is not untied I have not been unhappy my whole life This is not a wall That is not a ceiling This is not a scrape I don’t know…

  • the disruption of finance 

    From The Big Short by Michael Lewis, pg 172. This is a part of the story of the financial crisis which has received too little attention: ‘innovations’ in finance were driven by the ‘disruption’ the established figures in the industry were subject to as a result of new online competitors: One of the reasons Wall…

  • social media and the promise of never again being alone 

    From Liquid Surveillance: a conversation by Zygmunt Bauman and David Lyon, pg 22-23. I heard Bauman make these arguments at re:publica earlier this year and was rather impressed. As ever with him, it’s immensely impressionistic but I think he identifies something important that has been substantiated by other work, most obviously Alice Marwick’s ethnography of…

  • the threats of financial elites 

    From Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, pg 302-303 One of the managing directors from London, who happened to be in New York, actually took me aside to practise an argument he planned to put to the Bank of England. He had calculated the sum of the losses of the banks underwriting BP to be 700…

  • the threats of financial elites 

    From Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, pg 302-303 One of the managing directors from London, who happened to be in New York, actually took me aside to practise an argument he planned to put to the Bank of England. He had calculated the sum of the losses of the banks underwriting BP to be 700…

  • the totally weird subculture of 1980s mortgage traders 

    From Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, pg 149: Their culture was based on food, and as strange as that sounds, it was stranger still to those who watched mortgage traders eat. “You don’t diet on Christmas Day,” says a former trader, “and you didn’t diet in the mortgage department. Every day was a holiday. We…

  • the masters of the universe and their delusions

    From Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, pg 301: It was striking how little control we had of events, particularly in view of how assiduously we cultivated the appearance of being in charge by smoking big cigars and saying fuck all the time.

  • the meaning of scrounging in conservative britain 

    HT Nadine Muller   

  • post-democratic political culture: how good leaders go bad

    Absolutely fascinating comments offered by Varoufakis in response to unfolding events in Greece: In the wake of Tsipras’s unexpected move on Thursday to call early elections, Varoufakis said: “Tsipras made a decision on that night of the referendum not only to surrender to the troika but also to implement the terms of surrender on the…

  • the post-democratic judicial system

    Superb and worrying article in the LRB. I’d like to know more about international parallels to this trend in the UK, as it strikes me this is a very important dimension to the emergence of post-democracy: Unlike most other litigation costs, these fees must be paid up front; if you can’t pay, your claim won’t…

  • spotify’s ultra-creepy new privacy policy

    As the article suggests, this initiative may be the result of the threat posed by Apple music. What interests me is how totally open-ended this is: how do we perceive and evaluate risks when policies take such a form? Sections 3.3 and 3.4 of Spotify’s privacy policy say that the app will now collected much more data…

  • “drag coefficient”: the creepiest human resources concept ever?

    HT to Marcus Gilroy-Ware for telling me about this disturbing concept. This description by Arlie Hochschild is quoted in Bauman’s Consuming Life on pg 9: Since 1997, a new term – ‘zero drag’ – has begun quietly circulating in Silicon Valley, the heartland of the computer revolution in America. Originally it meant the frictionless movement…

  • the social expectations of the super-rich

    From Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 57-58. I’m very interested in how social expectations are generated amongst elites, how these in turn shape competitive pressures and the implications these have for how they orientate themselves towards non-elites. I’ve been looking through journalistic sources for examples of the super-rich complaining about their…

  • the self-congratulation of digital elites 

    From Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 54-55: Carnegie asserted that knights of capitalism like himself “ and the law of competition between these” were “not only beneficial, but essential to the future progress of the race.” No one would talk like that today, but our champions of capital do like to…

  • markets are a machine for destroying the ego

    Another remarkably revealing statement from a man who once likened himself to a giant digestive tract, taking in money at one end and expelling it at the other. From Plutocrats: the Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 53: George Soros told the gathered academics that “the markets are a machine for destroying the ego.”…

  • pride and pleasure in acceleration 

    From Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 52-53: One badge of membership in the super- elite is jet lag. Novelist Scott Turow calls this the “flying class” and describes its members as “the orphans of capital” for whom it is a “badge of status to be away from home four nights a…

  • data fetishism and the elites of digital capitalism 

    From Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 46: Carlos Slim, who studied engineering in college and taught algebra and linear programming as an undergraduate, attributes his fortune to his facility with numbers. So does Steve Schwarzman, who told me he owed his success to his “ability to see patterns that other people…

  • the culture of the ‘working rich’

    Following on from my previous post, I’m really interested in how this trend shapes how contemporary elites seek to make sense of their actions and circumstances in moral terms. From Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich pg 44: Forbes classifies 840 of the 1,226 people on its 2012 billionaire ranking as self- made.…

  • digital capitalism, the great levelling and the moral agency of elites

    I’ve been thinking recently about forms of moral self-understanding amongst elites and how they change over time. I’m particularly interested in how those in the tech sector make sense of their own actions. But there’s a broader background here, in which ‘globalisation’ is seen and justified in explicitly moral terms. For instance, this passage from Plutocrats:…

  • we are all equal before Google

    This snippet from an interview with the new Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, intrigued me: Pichai has said that he’s attracted to computing because of its ability to do cheaply things that are useful to everyone, irrespective of class or background. “The thing which attracted me to Google and to the internet in general is that it’s…

  • the moral discourse of the ‘reasonable technocrat’

    An excellent piece on Democrat Audit looking at the role of the ‘reasonable technocrat’ in the unfolding of the crisis in Europe. It’s important to analyse the moral underpinnings of technocratic discourse, looking at what makes it plausible and important to those who see the world in this way: a self-congragulatory pragmatism, regarding oneself as…

  • viral media and unionisation

    I’ve been interested in Upworthy for a long time. It was founded by Eli Pariser, author of the Filter Bubble and key figure in MoveOn.org, in order to leverage the dynamics of viral media to promote ‘meaningful’ and progressive content. But a few years on, with a change in Facebook’s algorithms having brought about a…

  • what to do when a political party you instinctively support shows nothing but contempt for the things you believe?

    My early political memories all relate to the Labour party. My dad was a Labour activist, as was my Granddad. My first involvement in politics was helping them deliver leaflets in the area of north Manchester I grew up in. Even as I began to drift into anarchist politics as a teenager, it was always something…

  • The fiction future of faculty: an afternoon of sociological design fiction

    I’m organising a design fiction event in Manchester on September 16th, with James Duggan and Joseph Lindley. It’ll be great. You can register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-fiction-future-of-faculty-an-afternoon-of-sociological-design-fiction-tickets-18169546603 The ability of storytelling to help us envision and discuss a gamut of plausible futures, from dystopian visions to everyday utopias, is increasingly being harnessed using the nascent practice of…

  • attribution in live tweeting

    I’m in the process of taking a carving knife to Social Media for Academics so expect more snippets to follow:  As Deborah Lupton has observed in her Digital Sociology, “Some academics are concerned that if their conference papers are live-tweeted at conferences, audio- or videotaped, blogged abut, or otherwise shared on social media by others their new and original…

  • the circular tendency in digital capitalism

    From this fascinating Jacobin piece. This observation is key to what I’m planning on focusing on over the next few years: One of the features of recent digital capitalism is the tendency for firms to build companies that appear to skirt around the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of the law regarding vertical monopolies (for…

  • blogging as an outboard brain

    This superb post by Cory Doctorow offers a philosophy of blogging extremely similar to what I’ve described as continuous publishing: As a committed infovore, I need to eat roughly six times my weight in information every day or my brain starts to starve and atrophy. I gather information from many sources: print, radio, television, conversation, the Web,…

  • on digital distraction

    From The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang: It amazes me how often during a single (admittedly rather trivial) thought my mind wants to veer off onto these other paths, pick up this idea and that one, answer this or that question – and how easy the web lets me satisfy that curiosity. What makes the Web…