Sociologist’s first #EMNLP2026 poster session was a success! Grateful for the interest and questions, and looking forward to meeting more ppl working on bias, fairness, and evals over the next few days! Can #ASA pls do posters next time?

We've probably learned more about American politics from the ANES than any other single data source. The same is true for the GSS and sociology. Both of these are gone if Congress acquiesces to these NSF cuts.

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 4w ago

NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:

New preprint! A review article on Generative AI and Society, with the fantastic @thomasdavidson.bsky.social & Danny Karell (smartly not online!) osf.io/preprints/so... The lit on genAI is sprawling and mostly not in sociology. Our goal is to synthesize core themes relevant to sociologists. +

Is AI biased against some demographic groups? 🤔 Recent LLM audits disagree, finding both ➕ and ➖ discrimination, even for the same models. In a new paper, accepted at #EMNLP2026 Findings, I show that this disagreement can arise from differences in audit format! 🧵 (1/7)

I was interviewed on CBC's Cost of Living podcast about how crowdfunding is increasingly used to cover everyday expenses like rent, groceries, and utilities. A lesson from the research is that it's especially hard to raise money this way for ongoing costs, compared to one-and-done projects.

Can crowdfunding solve the cost of living crisis?

Since the start of the year, thousands of Canadians have launched GoFundMe's to help pay their rent and bills. Producer Danielle Nerman explores what that says about our country's social support syste...

cbc.ca

Cosmopolitans Are Nationalists Too: Territorial Identities in European Cleavage Politics: https://osf.io/qhkps

🚨New Publication🚨 Using the entire #Canadian Election Study (1965–2021), I examine voter turnout by class, education, & income over time & test whether the offerings of political parties impact these relationships. Available #OpenAccess in @cjps-rcsp.bsky.social #polisky doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Um, ok... This paper forthcoming at the JOP provides evidence that rent control in Germany actually made tenants MASSIVELY *less* NIMBY. This result was in the opposite direction of the authors' pre-registered expectations. And the effect sizes are, truly, massive.

Has crowdfunding really "disrupted" philanthropy? My new article w/ @kenworthy.bsky.social, @jsnyder.bsky.social & E. Schneiderhan argues that CF's benefits are overstated. Rather than disrupting, CF reproduces old charity models, promotes misinfo & undermines public health. doi.org/10.1002/nvsm...

Disrupting Philanthropy? A Reality Check for Digital Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding promised to revolutionize philanthropy by using digital technology to make charitable giving cheaper, easier, and more accessible. Has this been realized in practice? We highlight three ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

When a man hijacked a bus in Hamilton, Ontario, on Tuesday, the potentially catastrophic scenario ended happily. It turns out he was a pretty decent bus driver. He made regular stops to pick up passengers, the police reported. At one point someone tried to board with an expired bus pass. No dice.

A Man Took a Bus for a Joyride. Turns Out, He’s Not a Bad Driver.

The incident in Hamilton, Ontario, ended safely with an arrest and no injuries (and all fares paid).

nyti.ms

@martinlukk.bsky.social @kenworthy.bsky.social, Erik Schneiderhan, and I pull together threads from our recent books on donation-based crowdfunding in the Journal of Philanthropy. We argue that rather than being a disruptive new force for good, crowdfunding's benefits have been greatly overstated.

Disrupting Philanthropy? A Reality Check for Digital Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding promised to revolutionize philanthropy by using digital technology to make charitable giving cheaper, easier, and more accessible. Has this been realized in practice? We highlight three ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Was just notified by U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter that my research features in his report on how economic insecurity has fueled far-right politics, presented to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday. Study available @sociusjournal.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Olivier De Schutter@deschuttero.bsky.social · last yr.

Today I will present my new report to UN General Assembly #UNGA80: Far-right populism and the future of social protection As I told @theguardian.com it’s not by accident that we are seeing the rise of the far right Full report & link to presentation (9PM CET): www.srpoverty.org/2025/10/01/f...

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

📢𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻!📢 We’re now accepting applications for the 𝗞𝗼𝗵𝗹𝗶 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social Apply via our online portal: kohlifoundation.eu/programs-koh... 📆 Deadline 16 November 2025

Delighted to see findings from my book discussed in Sara Herschander's thoughtful @vox.com piece on the grim realities of digital crowdfunding and how to live with them. @stanfordpress.bsky.social www.vox.com/future-perfe...

What to do when every crisis needs your $20

Everyone needs help on GoFundMe. So how do we give?

vox.com

"Interpretations of Topbot as measuring perceived income decile or subjective social status ... are untenable, and empirical claims made on these bases should be revisited." Important intervention relevant to many ppl studying the origins of political party support.

Sociological Science@sociologicalsci.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Anderson, "An Unreliable Ladder: Top–Bottom Self-Placement, Subjective Social Status, and Political Preferences sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

📶 Who’s still offline in a wired world? A new #Socius data visualization by @spencerallen.bsky.social (@um-psc.bsky.social)‬ tracks #BroadbandAccess in the U.S. from 2013–2023—showing gaps by #Race, #Education & #Poverty have narrowed, but persist. Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...

Another outstanding @asapolisoc.bsky.social panel on Electoral Politics. #asa2025

Bocconi University in Milan is hiring in sociology at any level (open rank). Ideal candidate might focus on inequality, social policy, computational, labor markets, or similar. Happy to answer questions about my time there for anyone considering applying. More details: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu

I’m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year. Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:

Attn: the special issue of SMR on Generative AI in Sociology is now online. The whole issue is fire, but the introduction by @thomasdavidson.bsky.social and Danny Karell is a must read, covering prompting, measurement, and simulations. It's a road map for soc sci research in the genAI era. +

Integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence into Social Science Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation - Thomas Davidson, Daniel Karell, 2025

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) offers new capabilities for analyzing data, creating synthetic media, and simulating realistic social interactions. This...

journals.sagepub.com

So I don't have the energy to redo the entire thread about the papal conclave but I will redo the part about the Latin nerdery: the announcement of a new pope is always in Latin, and uses a very traditional form.

Palate cleanser #ggplot

RCT suggests smartphones make adults dumb cc @paulgp.com @novosad.bsky.social academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

OAG data shows that passenger bookings on Canada–U.S. routes are currently down by 70% compared to last year. www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/boo...

OAG: Bookings on Canada–U.S. Air Routes Down by 70%

OAG data shows that passenger bookings on Canada–U.S. routes are currently down by 70% compared to last year.

airwaysmag.com

Because Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's "Abundance" is less a book than a discourse-generating machine (by design), I'm going to review the *reviews* (I also have a review of the actual book coming, I'm not a total weirdo). Roughly from worst to best:

Hello, #ESS2025! I'll be presenting tomorrow, Friday at the "From Polarization to Solidarity" mini-conference. Whittier, 4th floor @ 8AM. Come to find out what this map tells us about territorial identification in contemporary Europe!

As reported, the entire staff of 538 was laid off this morning. This is a severe blow to political data journalism, and I feel for my colleagues. Readers note: As we were instructed not to publish any new content, all planned updates to polls data and averages are canceled indefinitely. Huge loss :(

The tech story no one is talking about #clubhouse

PSA: Grad students can sign up for a GitHub Education account and get free unlimited access to GitHub Co-Pilot. It plugs in directly to RStudio and is extremely handy. #rstats