In Cape Town, officials met repeatedly with a prospective hyperscale investor while basic information about proposed developments, their cumulative electricity demand and the city's wider data-center pipeline remains unavailable to the public, report Eunice Masson, Lyse Comins and Athandiwe Saba.

Cape Town is Approving Data Centers with Rules That Still Treat Them Like Warehouses

South African cities are building AI infrastructure before planning systems have caught up with its scale, write Eunice Masson, Lyse Comins and Athandiwe Saba.

buff.ly

Exciting news! Michigan is hiring another science and technology policy fellow! The fellow will work in MI's Dept of Agriculture and Rural Development on PFAS and other contaminants. Note: the position is open wrt field, but PhD required. Sept 21 deadline. 🚨Pls circulate!🚨 #scipolicy #techpolicy

My new co-edited volume! Thanks to terrific co-editors @bhaggart.bsky.social & @k8henne.bsky.social! See my chapter for how IoT makers exert control over device ownership, lifespan & use, including with trains & jets. These issues have national security & sovereignty angles w/ an authoritarian US.

Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and @k8henne.bsky.social have edited a new book titled ‘Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World’. The book explores how the control of knowledge has become central to political, economic and social power. Read more: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Happy Sunday, #ASA2026 attendees! The person who writes these posts is manning our booth today so drop by and see our latest books in sociology. Long day of panels? Check out our ASA website and save 40% on our displayed books: www.ucpress.edu/book-lists/a...

American Sociological Association 2026

Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

ucpress.edu

it feels strange to say after working on it for so many years but my book manuscript "Nuclear Bureaucracy: The Epistemic Politics of Verification at the IAEA" is going into production with @cornellupress.bsky.social and will appear in 2027. also in 2027, the IAEA celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Our new issue is out! It includes a special issue titled "The Right Against Rights," with articles illustrating forms of legal mobilization by the Right against rights and an editorial introduction by Simón Escoffier, Leigh A. Payne, and Gabriel Pereira 📚 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Excited to share that we are now inviting proposals for our upcoming Critical AI Studies? conference at @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social on Oct. 9&10, 2026. Please see the full CfP here: huml.ucsb.edu/conference. Submissions are due July 31, 2026. For questions DM me or @owenleonard.bsky.social.

Now out: special issue of Surveillance & Society. Issue examines creative responses to workplace surveillance, Ring doorbells, period-tracking apps (my article), social media censorship, & interventions by Forensic Architecture. ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/su...

NPR has a 'Word of the Week' series, and this week it's LUDDITE I spoke with Emma Bowman about who they really were and about the new luddites organizing against big tech + AI A fun one and, since it's airing on All Things Considered, maybe the biggest-audience luddite rehabilitation effort yet

Get with the times — here's what a 'Luddite' means today

It's often a derogatory term used to describe digital dinosaurs and technophobes. That wasn't always the case. NPR's Word of the Week looks back at the not so backwards-looking Luddites.

npr.org

#CallForSessions #ISAWCS27 ℹ️ ISA Working Group “Digital Sociology” (WG10) Call for Session Proposals for XXI ISA World Congress of Sociology, July 4–10, 2027 in Gwangju, Republic of Korea 🗓️ Deadline for session proposals: June 25, 2026 🔗 www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/imge...

What does Brazil's fight against Bolsonaro teach us about resisting authoritarianism? This week @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk with @karabekir.bsky.social about Lula's return and the fragile politics of a "rainbow coalition" itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-13...

Episode 13: We've Seen the Story Turn with Dr. Karabekir Akkoyunlu

As we explore the various forms of authoritarianism around the world these days, it can feel like there’s no end in sight.

itallhappenedbefore.substack.com

Journalists + writers: I'm on the hunt for a book essay for the November/December issue of @technologyreview.com. The idea is to have a strong thesis and use 1-3 new or upcoming books to help explore it. My e-mail's at the bottom of this page if you need it. www.technologyreview.com/how-to-pitch...

Check out the 1st issue of our 60th anniversary volume! This special issue focuses on Building the Disciplines within Law and Society and features contributions from Mark Fathi Massoud, Jeffrey Omari, Nurfadzilah Yahaya, Lynette J. Chua, Renee Cramer, and Asad Asad www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Excited to share a new pub in @lawsocietyreview.bsky.social co-authored with Carolina Valdivia! Carolina and I explore the concept of "creative solutions," or ways that higher ed staff support undocumented students and alter organizational meanings of illegality www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Call for Proposals: Our 2026 Global Outreach Small Grants Program is open now! Some great opportunities for STS-focused individuals and groups. Deadline to submit: July 26. Visit our website for eligibility and more information: www.4sonline.org/2026_global_...

We have EXTENDED the deadline to June 15, 2026!!!

Labor Tech Research Network@labortechresearchnetwork.org · 5mo ago

ANNOUNCING OUR 2026 AWARDS! Please nominate yourself + your colleagues for our Book, Graduate Student Paper, and Social Justice Awards. More info on our website: labortechresearchnetwork.org/awards

Our schedule for #FAccT2026 is live! facctconference.org/2026/schedul... You can find the full conference program, including sessions and papers, through the above link.

Following Marc Galanter’s passing in April, we released a thematic collection that captures his work published in LSR. It is only a snapshot of his publications, so we invite readers to explore the full range of his scholarship. All articles are free to access! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This is the funniest stock photo choice imaginable for this book. The designer was like, "How can I capture the title and subtile in one handy image? I know!"

Joseph M. Adelman@jmadelman.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The arrival of June means that I'm officially starting a three-year term as chair of the World Languages Department at Framingham State. Looking forward to working with my new(ish) colleagues, and whatever happens, ¡será una aventura!

Up and at 'em on this lovely Saturday, #LSASF2026 attendees! We'll have another host of UC Press employees at our booth, eager to show you our latest Legal Studies books! As mentioned before, grab 40% off our displayed books on our LSA website:

Law and Society Association 2026

Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

ucpress.edu

Since Google revealed its plans for an AI search overhaul, visits to our "No AI" search page have tripled…and they’re still rising! Want to make it your default on Chrome or Firefox? Grab our No-AI extensions and banish AI-assisted answers, chat, and AI images. (1/3)

Attending the @lawandsociety.bsky.social meeting? Join the Law & Society Review editorial team TODAY to discuss 60 years of LSR and our plans to maintain the journal’s vibrancy while charting a course for a future in which law itself looks uncertain. 🕝 2:45pm-4:30pm 📍Plaza Room A, Lobby Level

To celebrate our 60th, we have joined @bsky.app! We’re looking forward to catching up with colleagues the @lawandsociety.bsky.social meeting this week. If you are traveling and haven’t had a chance to read our 60th anniversary issue, you can find it here!

Law and Society Association@lawandsociety.bsky.social · 5mo ago

ICYMI: LSR’s 60th Anniversary issue features Past President @michelebgoodwin.bsky.social's 2025 Presidential Address, “To Be a Citizen: Or What it Means to Be a Person or Property”!

📣 The David Hakken Graduate Student Paper Prize is now accepting submissions! Recognizing innovative research at the intersection of anthropology and STS. Deadline: June 15, 2026. Self-submissions welcome. #CASTAC #Anthropology castac.org/castac-award...

Can you review ~4 submissions for AIES? The AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society has received over 900 submissions this year – rivaling the number of some general AI research conferences. 🧵

AusSTS 2026 in Aotearoa! Deadline extended to April 10. aussts.org/aussts2026 #STS

AusSTS | AusSTS 2026

Submit to AusSTS 2026: Antipodean Interruptions, 9-11 Nov at Victoria University of Wellington. Deadline: 3 April 2026. All career stages welcome.

aussts.org

Watermarking submitted papers to detect reviews generated by AI. Next up, we need to ban offenders from future submissions. As a sometime Area Chair for various conferences, I found nothing more infuriating than AI reviews. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Major conference catches illicit AI use — and rejects hundreds of papers

The papers’ watermarks allowed organizers to detect use of large language models in peer review.

nature.com

One person in this photo deserves a 20% WNBA revenue share and it’s not me. Congratulations to the WNBPA on their historic labor agreement.