The Un-Christian Nolan: Notes on the #Odyssey. 💡 Brief thoughts on whether Chris #Nolan has re-imagined Odyssey from a decidedly Christian (or Judaeo-Christian/ Protestant, read: WOKE) lens. The story of the usual #culturewars on Musk's X open.substack.com/pub/addyray/...

The 'Un-Christian' Nolan: Notes on the Odyssey

Addressing the 'Anti-Woke' Culture Wars

open.substack.com

This is fascinating on Palantir and the NHS podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

How Palantir got into the NHS

Podcast Episode · Today in Focus · July 27 · 30m

podcasts.apple.com

New post: From Rogue to Renegade AI: Who will be in charge in the #singularity? addyray.substack.com/p/from-rogue...

From Rogue to Renegade AI: Who will be in charge in the Singularity?

Is accountability becoming too much to ask in the age of autonomous AI?

addyray.substack.com

Technology needs oversight, no doubt. But is the #WorldCup and #VAR rigged? Simplest answer: No* simplereally.substack.com/p/is-the-wor...

Is the World Cup Rigged? The Simple answer: No*

by Adi Ray

simplereally.substack.com

“Trajectories of Platform Power in the AI Age: Infrastructure, Labour, and India’s Place in the Global Digital Economy" Today, in Bengaluru, we are bringing together an interesting group of researchers, practitioners and policy folks to think through some big questions. Updates to come.

Now available in Latest Articles @bricolageyumyum.bsky.social interrogates 'subscription', a taken-for-granted economic bedrock of digital capitalism www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Subscription’s entanglements

Scholars cite subscription paywalls and recurring fees as evidence of a wider political-economic shift from commodification to assetization by digital enclosure, but the mechanics of the subscripti...

tandfonline.com

"Many of the issues raised by the Commission in the document are not about principles of data sharing, but rather generally poor compliance practices". The beacon of free speech everyone... soon we will have the X files

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Now that the underlying decision in the European Commission’s €120 million fine against X is in the public domain, Oliver Marsh and LK Seiling examine what it reveals about data access under the Digital Services Act.

The recently closed TikTok deal has some safeguards built in, but Chinese influence could persist. The fix: disclose licensing terms and let independent researchers verify what is happening on the platform, say Mark MacCarthy and Carl Schonander.

Mandated TikTok Transparency is Needed to Protect US Users

TikTok should disclose its licensing terms and let independent researchers verify what is happening on the platform, say Mark MacCarthy and Carl Schonander.

buff.ly

Blistering piece on ed tech in @economist.com. ‘Although ed-tech companies tout huge learning gains, independent research has made clear that technology rarely boosts learning in schools—and often impairs it.’ economist.com/united-state...

Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless

Independent research identifies few learning gains

economist.com

New housing and planning resource for Ireland – a publications hub. >1,800 academic, policy and sector publications relating to housing, property and planning in Ireland. Access at www.zotero.org/groups/55867... if there are pubs missing you want us to add, please send them to us and we will do so

🪧 'Work and Employment in the Great Reshuffle: Navigating the Polycrisis' (WES 2026) We are organising the 2026 Work, Employment and Society Annual Conference! Call for abstracts now open. Deadline for submission is 20 March 2026. Full call for submissions here: www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...

Its the era of cryptopolitics - where money flows from online exchanges without borders to influence decisions within borders.

Neon Genesis Ewangelion@ewacat.bsky.social · 8mo ago

"Mr Harborne, who is British but lives in Thailand" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Some are jubilant about this, as if all is well with its democracy, yet we should not forget how illiberal discourses of rights have already gained prominence, (in)ordinately shaped by the class power and interests of elites.

Glyn Moody@glynmoody.bsky.social · 8mo ago

After intense backlash, #India pulls mandate to pre-install government app on smartphones - techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/a... "would remain voluntary, and that smartphone makers would no longer be required to preload it on devices they sell. " #surveillance

Super excited to announce a new piece out in the world: States and platform capitalisms: A conversation. This is a collaboration with some amazing thinkers and friends- led by @sayshatim.bsky.social Joe Khalil @linzhang.bsky.social & @rahmuk.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

India doing a rapid hairpin bend on its road to digital in-security and state surveillance. #digital #surveillance

Hari Kunzru@harikunzru.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Indian government orders that all cell phones made in or imported into India must have a government tracking app installed. It will be an offense to delete it. #surveillance #control

ECRs apply!

Jamie Peck@jamiepeck.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Pls share: Applications open for Summer Institute in Economic Geography, Toronto, 5-10 July 2026 Featuring: Lars Coenen, Karen Lai, Devika Narayan and Stefan Ouma Early career economic geographers (broadly defined) are welcome to apply. Stipends available. www.econgeog.net/Toronto2026

Also an alum of the 2022 Montreal EGRG even. 10/10 would recommend. Early Careers please Apply.

Ilias Alami@iliasalami.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Apply!

To be fair, Coates wrote this piece because very few others who could do it, did. I see this as basic truth telling with journalist skills that others refused to employ.

🚨 Our research on unions and organising in India's platform society covered in the media, for which both me and my co-author @islandexpress.bsky.social were also interviewed: "Why unions find it hard to forge worker solidarity in the platform economy". behanbox.com/2025/09/05/w...

Why Unions Find It Hard To Forge Worker Solidarity In Platform Companies

In the platform economy, time is scarce, worker interactions are discouraged, and protests met with punishment. The idea of both union and unity are threatened

behanbox.com

You wait years for a headline like this on.ft.com/3Tmw16o

Poundland sold for less than £1

[FREE TO READ] US private equity group Gordon Brothers acquires struggling discount retailer ahead of restructuring plan

on.ft.com

Please check out @adiray.bsky.social's very timely piece proposing a post colonial critical political economy approach to studying platforms and digital technologies, contesting the Asian developmental model of leapfrogging. Another wonderful article from our social media+society special issue.

Aditya Ray@adiray.bsky.social · last yr.

Interrogating Technological Leapfrogging in Asian Development and Growth Models. Happey to see this piece out in Social Media + Society! Began life as 20K draft (another story..), with nudging I shaped part of it into a conceptual intervention. Open access 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2056...

Interrogating Technological Leapfrogging in Asian Development and Growth Models. Happey to see this piece out in Social Media + Society! Began life as 20K draft (another story..), with nudging I shaped part of it into a conceptual intervention. Open access 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2056...

Yup the blunders within the show and bluster was all too visible.

Nick Bednar@nicholasbednar.bsky.social · last yr.

This article is rather strong evidence of what many of us have feared: They broke the agencies and need to rehire. (Some don't even have people to process payroll.) But a significant number of former employees have found new jobs or refuse to return. For those who return, morale is terrible.

Musk vs Trump (X vs TS)

a robot and a monster are standing next to each other in front of a computer screen .

ALT: a robot and a monster are standing next to each other in front of a computer screen .

media.tenor.com

Julia Carrie Wong@joolia.bsky.social · last yr.

it’s funny that they’re both on their own personal websites posting their little posts

Our article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" has been published by 'Work, Employment and Society'. With Nick Martindale and @brendanburchell.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/0950...

Very much looking forward to this talk from @wstronge.bsky.social on June 2nd in @uoe-sps.bsky.social

What can India’s emerging gig worker unions teach us about labour organising & welfare in the digital age? Thrilled about this new open-access paper with @islandexpress in @compchange.bsky.social Read: doi.org/10.1177/1024... It's packed with ideas. A thread of it's key interventions:

Read the chapter by @cosminpopan.bsky.social and myself about the changing composition of couriers and the consequences for collectivism!

Cosmin Popan (@cosminpopan.bsky.social)

Sociologist. Post-doc Grenoble Alpes University. Migration, mobilities, imaginaries, labour. France, Senegal, Romania. https://linktr.ee/cosmin.popan

cosminpopan.bsky.social

Kurt Vandaele@kurtvandaele.bsky.social · last yr.

The Elgar Companion to Regulating Platform Work, co-edited with @silviarainone.bsky.social, is now available @elgarpublishing.bsky.social @etui.bsky.social Thanks to the authors for their insights on app-based food delivery! More info 👉 www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the... #GigEconomy #FoodForThought

This is gonna be great - join if you can!! 💥

Platforms & Society@platformsnsociety.bsky.social · last yr.

EVENT ALERT: Platforms and Society and @adtechproject.bsky.social present "How to Approach and Regulate Google?" - an online symposium 12 May 2025 | 9:00–10:30 AM (EST) / 3-4.30 PM (CEST) newschool.zoom.us/j/9834828717... (pw. 690528)