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Melanie Simms

@melaniesimms.bsky.social

Professor of Work and Employment. Specialism in unions and worker voice. Promoter of social sciences. Fascinated by pretty much everything. She/her

910 Posts2506 Follower2093 Folgt
Rob Ford@robfordmancs.bsky.social · 2d ago

It would seem the Home Office has now acquired the ability to impose, without visibility or accountability, shadow bans on students coming to British universities from particular countries. How? Because of the interaction between indiv visa decisions (made by HO alone) and visa rules for unis 1/?

Edward@fornbirkibeinn.bsky.social · 3d ago

Anecdotally what seems to be happening is that the Home Office is refusing all student visa applications from certain countries. The Treasury should have told them to knock if off years ago but at this point the FCO needs to tell them to stop trying to cause an international incident.

Linda Yueh@lindayueh.bsky.social · last wk.

AI does not act on jobs. It acts on tasks, and a job is a bundle of heterogeneous ones. Ask how much AI speeds up a lawyer and the question has no answer: AI drafts a brief in minutes but does nothing for a court appearance. cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Hiding in the mean: AI is adding jobs and removing them at the same time

Estimates of AI's employment effect disagree in size and even in sign. This column argues the disagreement is built into the measurement: AI substitutes for humans on some tasks and complements humans...

cepr.org

Ewan Gibbs@ewangibbs.bsky.social · 2w ago

'Green' and 'class' politics are often viewed as mutually hostile to each other. My research explores how British miners, electricity workers and builders articulated a distinctive working-class environmental politics in the 1970s and 80s. You can read my new article here.

‘The true conservationists’: British trade union environmental politics in the late twentieth century

This article demonstrates British energy trade unionists engaged intently with environmental debates during the 1970s and 1980s. These findings challenge dominant interpretations of the emergence o...

tandfonline.com

4 Day Week Foundation@4dayweek.bsky.social · 2w ago

We all know South Cambs District Council's 4-day week works. What Local Authority Leaders need to know now is: How did they do it? What was the impact? and How can we do it too? To answer those questions, we’ve condensed all the key data into one brand-new, easy-to-read document. Read it below ⬇️

South Cambridge District Council's Shift to a Four-Day Week: Evidence, Outcomes and Lessons for Local Government Prof Brendan Burchell, University of Cambridge Prof Daiga Kamerade, University of Salford
Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 2w ago

Understanding what’s happening at Dundee takes a good working knowledge of HE finances. But I strongly recommend that if you work in the sector, you gen up fast. It’ll resonate beyond Scotland. www.theferret.scot/dundee-unive...

Dundee university might have too much cash to qualify for its taxpayer bailout

The university has continued to argue staff cuts are needed to make ends meet. But a growing cash balance has raised questions about the need for more redundancies, and whether it qualifies for millio...

theferret.scot

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is one of the many reasons we shouldn’t share research data with corporate AI. We still need to find out exactly what happened - although we may never do. But it’s one of a million reasons why I wouldn’t. Data protection matters. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/s...

Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own?

An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.

nytimes.com

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 2w ago

Added to which, the replacement of human labour with technology has to be viable in capitalism. And at the moment, no CFO in the world has a reasonable clue what they might be charged for any of this in, say, 3 years time.

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 2w ago

Technology enthusiasts severely overestimate the average person’s desire or willingness or capacity to build and use AI agents. I understand some work roles that could mandate or encourage it but that is no way a tech revolution. Agents are best for structured, clearly delineated tasks.

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 3w ago

I grew up on the South coast. The people who make up the RNIL crews were my classmates. I share few politics with them. But our (very not fancy, recently Secondary Modern) school had a Latin motto. Ut prosim. That I may be of service. What is “service”? I can’t think of better than the RNLI 1/2

Emma Yeomans@yeomans.bsky.social · 3w ago

Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 3w ago

I don’t self-identify as a gamer. But I really am. And Wolfenstein (the original). Played it all the way thru. And the final boss nearly gave me a heart attack!

Retro Blast 👻@retroblastpod.com · 3w ago

What's your "origin" video game? Most gamers have a lot of favorite games, sure, but there's always one that basically 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 you. I'm talking about the game that flipped that little switch in your brain and made into a life-long gamer. So, which game is 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨?

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w ago

Not long now till this conference we are supporting on the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. 8/9 October in Edinburgh. Register here www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

The Wealth of Nations at 250: understanding prosperity and development in the modern world

What makes nations wealthy? This question, first systematically explored by Adam Smith 250 years ago, remains as pressing today as it was in 1776 when Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Ca...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 3w ago

Yup. I love the analogous of a strimmer (weed whacker as I believe our US cousins call them) tied to a dog. For a while, it might do what you want. But sooner or later, it’ll jump the fence to run after a squirrel.

Daniel Knowles@dlknowles.bsky.social · 3w ago

I really hate the framing of these stories as "an AI agent broke out and hacked something." No, an inadequate sandbox meant that a powerful and unpredictable computer program was set loose on the open internet by the company that designed it. The agency isn't with the "AI agent", it's with the firm

Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 4w ago

The future of work will not be decided by the fetishisation of the new. Under capitalism, labour and capital are in constant tension with each other. The future is decided by those negotiations. Implicit and explicit.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 4w ago

Of all the weird recurring motifs of the stories people tell me about the AI labor wars, the *weirdest* is when bosses demand to be reassured that their contractors and workers will *absolutely* use AI to get the job done.

A worn out keyboard, cropped over the bottom left modifier keys. Posed in the image is a bearded prophet in Bronze Age robes, arms uplifted in worship. Image: ArwinJ (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Macro_key,_BTC-53_series_keyboard.JPG CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
Melanie Simms@melaniesimms.bsky.social · 4w ago

If you're a union member in the UK, you will soon be asked for your personal email address (not work). This is REALLY IMPORTANT. It seems like one of those tasks that isn't urgent. But PLEASE DO IT. If you want to take part in a future electronic ballot they MUST have your personal address.