Kath Bassett

@kathrithm.bsky.social

Lecturer in Sociology at York. I research tourism as a key site of digitisation, tracing how mobilities, hospitality work, and urban economies are governed by algorithms and platforms.

Given what is happening with X, it's a good time to propose for anyone interested to read the "Algorithms of Resistance" by T. Bonini & E. Trere. It offers ways to challenge the logic of the platform, and there is a lot of research backing up the arguments of the book. It's open access too!

Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight against Platform Power

How global workers, influencers, and activists develop tactics of algorithmic resistance by appropriating and repurposing the same algorithms that control

direct.mit.edu

Imagination is resistance, @ruha9.bsky.social reminds us that, " we need to reject the gospel that says technology is inevitable, that the train has left the station... In an error of automated bullshit, it’s time to become bullshit detectors," #MozFest

also: "a debate at the University of Dar es Salaam about excellence counterposed to relevance. Relevance is not universal in its claims. It’s particular, place specific, time specific. The single-minded pursuit of excellence can give rise to a World Bank/IMF-type cookie-cutter logic..."

When I was researching Beside the Seaside I built quite a good digital archive of images of railway travel posters relating to Yorkshire. One of them was this one which I don't think I've seen online since. A penny a mile would make a return trip to the coast from West Yorkshire about 12/- or so

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Adapting to iPad reading = fewer printed PDFs, a happier university budget, and perhaps a small nod from nature. Though with the energy footprint of our devices and data centres, I’m not sure what counts as the “sustainable” choice anymore…

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Teaching 'Living in Digital Cultures' this week, our first year students explored how social + locative media leave hidden trails across cities. From Snap Maps to Google reviews, they mapped the infrastructures that quietly shape how we move, meet, and imagine place.

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