The sociology of pandemic education
Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
The platform ecosystem as a field of temptation and the virtues required to negotiate it
This is a lovely piece from L. M. Sacasas on the limitations of digital literacy initiatives, tending as they do to abstract the intellectual problem of reliable truth-seeking practices from the moral problem of being committed to seeking that truth under conditions which make it difficult. In this sense, he’s arguing that virtue is something which the platform ecosystem requires of it as we try and flourish within and through the field of temptation it presents us with.
What I will miss about Cambridge, what I won’t miss about Cambridge
In 10 days I leave the University of Cambridge to start as Lecturer in Education at the University of Manchester, which means I’ll be leaving the city of Cambridge in a few months to move back to the city of my birth. The Faculty of Education here has been a […]
The Buddhist principle of skill in means and theorising communication
s it, this refers to “the ability to bring out the spiritual potentialities of different people by statements or actions which are adjusted to their needs and adapted to their capacity for comprehension”.
The sociological overlaps with incel culture
thought this was a very important, if challenging, observation by Richard Seymour about the elements of incel culture which can be found in (somewhat) mainstream sociological thought.
Are you a non-player character in your own life?
I found it impossible to resist the premise of Free Guy. A non player character (NPC) in an open world multiplayer game becomes aware of the limits of his own existence, breaking out of the loop in which he is stuck and beginning to exercise agency over his own life.
CfP: Living with Extinction
I thought this CfP looked brilliant, even if so far away from what I do these days that I can’t see a feasible contribution I could make myself.
Hope, perseverance, a vision (some doubt)
Hope, perseverance, a vision (some doubt).
Green ink, a 26 oz., a bad case of big-mouth.
A sum of our parts and I’ve never laughed harder.
A song in our hearts and I’ve never laughed harder.
It don’t really matter ’cause nothing’s ever felt as right as this.
How does sociological thought contribute to human freedom?
I’ve been skimming through Thinking Sociologically by Zygmunt Bauman and Tim May. One of the things I like about this is the clear sense in which they’re arguing that sociological thought contributes to human freedom.
What does public engagement with academic research mean in an increasingly polarised society?
produced and how this is changing. The etymology of ‘public’ highlights the dynamic character of this adjective, from the late 14th century “open to general observation” through to the Latin root “of the people; of the state; done for the state,” and “common, general, of or belonging to the people at large; ordinary, vulgar”.
Platform capitalism and the recovery of educational technics
The defining thread of my work over the last decade has been the recovery of technical systems and devices as salient factors in educational practice. This means a refusal to treat these items as tools which can be picked up and put down, defined by nothing other than the uses to which they’re put, but rather to recognise them as casually significant features of educational processes, with their own histories and characteristics.
The Death of Yugoslavia
I’m saving this here because I want to watch the full series in the playlist below:
It’s the final countdown…
Are you a finisher or an abandoner? On the existential anxieties of the bibliophile
someone who finishes books and being someone prone to abandoning them. Around a decade ago I committed to becoming the former after discovering that a year largely spent reading had only led me to finish 20 or so books. Disturbed by the realisation that I was likely to read only a few thousand books in the rest of my life, I sought to be more intentional in my reading. If a book was good enough to start, it was good enough to finish. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
Songs for teenagers
The Return of the Privatdozent in the Platform University
By Privatdozent I mean unsalaried or precariously employed scholars with doctorates who are entering into direct financial relationships with students.
