Steve Threadgold
@stevethreadgold.bsky.social
Sociologist at University of Newcastle Research on youth and class: alternative work trajectories; underground and independent creative scenes; cultural formations of taste, fintech and financial practices. https://linktr.ee/stevethreadgold?utm_source=link
New article out with Bev Skeggs and @rogerjburrows.bsky.social in @culsoc.bsky.social on how cultural consumption data's enrolment into insurance, health, housing and other areas that extends symbolic violence and means we nee to think about culture differently
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I could weep, seriously. Some of the places I love best are those second-hand book stores in the side streets of small towns. Where the stacks contain surprises that shape how one thinks about something. Now LLMs need “pre 2022” texts to avoid the “contamination” of synthetic data 1/
404 Media@404media.co · 2w agoA book seller told 404 Media that, normally, on a good week, he’d sell about 20 books. Since April, he has regularly sold hundreds of books a week. While the seller didn’t have clear evidence that the purchases were being made by AI companies, the purchases made him suspect that they were.
Please join us on Wednesday for our next NYSC online seminar where will be joined Peta Cook (University of Tasmania), Elizabeth Humphrys (University of Technology) and Nicole Asquith (Queensland University of Technology) for “Scholarship Disabled: Crip research, crip scholars”.
Scholarship Disabled: Crip research, crip scholars
A discussion designed to increase awareness but also provoke conversations on the place(lessness) of crip scholars in Australian high
eventbrite.com.au
Check out David Beer's new short story collection zine published on @awtsn.bsky.social amazing Frances Street Press francesstreetpress.com/tales-zine-b...
tales of the disconnected
a zine of short stories by David Beer Digital life is strange, but we hardly even seem to notice just how strange it is. The Tales Of The Disconnected gathered together here explore the uncanniness…
francesstreetpress.com
Please join us for our next NYSC online seminar when we are joined by Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths) to talk about the critical politics of AI and his work on decomputing.
From Resisting AI to Decomputing
Dan McQuillan talks critical AI politics
eventbrite.com.au
If you use fintech, live in Australia, and are between 18 and 30 years old, please sign up to be interviewed in our project. Interviewees get a $50 gift card while workshops participants get $75! youthfintechfutures.wordpress.com/participate/
Participate
Click this link to do the screening survey
youthfintechfutures.wordpress.com
Here’s a video from the same podcast as linked in my previous post where you can hear the audio too. I love this because it really lays bare how LLMs fool us - but really they’re just slotting words into linguistic patterns that we’re familiar with. Genres like a podcast or LinkedIn post.
Here's a link to the lectures, most of which are chats with other researchers, for my Algorithm/AI/Data course. I’m hoping it can become somewhat of a public resource too so please send it to anyone you think may be interested in a critical look at our new data driven overlords. 1/2
Consumption, Technology and Everyday Life 2026 - YouTube
youtube.com
Our next NYSC Online Seminar is no tomorrow at 3pm. Maternal Secrets: Shame, Silence, and the Materiality of Mothering, featuring Giverny Lewis (UoN), Briony Lipton (UNSW) and Eva Neely (Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington).
Maternal Secrets: Shame, Silence, and the Materiality of Mothering
This seminar brings together three explorations of what often remains hidden in maternal experiences.
eventbrite.com.au
BIG NEWS! The 5th Journal of Youth studies Conference will take place in Porto, May 4 to 6, 2027! Check the link for all relevant details including submissions, registration and keynotes. jys-conference.eventqualia.net/en/2027/home/
The 5th Journal of Youth Studies International Conference
jys-conference.eventqualia.net
The more I think about it, the more I hate @lintonbesser.bsky.social's implication here that allowing machine-generated plagiarism and fabrications in media+opinion is somehow "inevitable" Frankly, it seems to go against the entire existence of media watch? www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/e...
Had a fun chat with the great Mark Mordue on his podcast The Slider. We talked about the research @newcastleyouth.bsky.social is doing, plus a bunch of other stuff like " 'data gaze' surveillance, fintech auctions for your identity, online gambling and some hope with rock n roll"
Different Class
Newcastle youth, 'data gaze' surveillance, fintech auctions for your identity, online gambling and some hope with rock n roll
markmordue.substack.com
Tomorrow (Tues March 17, 2pm) we have Sam Friedman (LSE) presenting on his award winning work on the British elite. The seminar is online and in person at NuSpace (X204).
Born to Rule
The Making and Remaking of the British Elite
eventbrite.com.au
Please join us online on Wednesday March 11 (tomorrow!) at 3pm for @samfriedman.bsky.social (LSE) and Rose Butler (Deakin) for our next online seminar "Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility'
Class Diplomacy: Cross-Class Friendship and Social Mobility
Negotiating class based tensions and the politics of friendship
eventbrite.com.au
On Wednesday at 2pm we have our NYSC visitor Sam Kirwan from University of Bristol presenting on The Debt Cycle. This will be online and for those in Newcastle please join us in person at X401 in NuSpace.
The Debt Cycle
Presents work from Sam Kirwan's forthcoming book
eventbrite.com.au
Our online seminar series kicks off Wednesday February 11 at 3pm, on ‘Algorithmic Dwelling: Digital Technologies as Intermediaries in Housing Access and the Enactment of Home’.
Algorithmic Dwelling
Digital Technologies as Intermediaries in Housing Access and the Enactment of Home
eventbrite.com.au
Congratulations to our new research team member Dr Niamh White on her PhD conferral and becoming a newly minted Dr! We look forward to working with you on young people and fintech over the next few years
After over 2 years under review, our paper discussing strategies to get by in the creative industries is out
Hustling in the projectariat? Financialisation and precarious creative industries
The Creative Industries are precarious, emblematic of what has become known as “wageless life” in the “projectariat”. In this article, we use qualitative data to explore how young people who are st...
tandfonline.com
SAVE THE DATE! Journal of Youth Studies Conference, University of Porto in May 4-6, 2027.
Our next online seminar is on at 3pm tomorrow. The False Divide between Nature and Culture: How Estrogens, Yeasts and Snakes Reveal the Entanglement of Everyday Life See you there!
The False Divide between Nature and Culture
How Estrogens, Yeasts and Snakes Reveal the Entanglement of Everyday Life
eventbrite.com.au
Who world have thought i'd be talking in the the Australian Financial Review about class, but there you go...
The class signals that decide who gets promoted in Australia
Having a “bogan” accent or a “hick” degree can cruel leadership aspirations, according to a new report. Oh, and add watching reality TV and rugby league to that mix.
afr.com
New article by @juliacook.bsky.social in @bjsociology.bsky.social 'Understanding the Role of Migration, Culture and Transnational Ties in Family Financial Assistance With Home Ownership'
Understanding the Role of Migration, Culture and Transnational Ties in Family Financial Assistance With Home Ownership
Family financial assistance with home ownership has attracted significant scholarly attention in recent years. However, the role of culture and ethnicity, transnational ties, and migration in this pr....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
I'm giving talk at RMIT for the Music Industry Research Collective on Monday October 20 at 3pm on 'What is cultural sociology when culture is platformed and financialised?'
NYSC online seminar on ‘The Materialities of Inequality: Mould, Acid and Glitter’ featuring Beckie Coleman, Bev Skeggs, Imogen Tyler and Roger Burrows is on tomorrow night, Wednesday October 8 at 7pm (9am London time).
The Materialities of Inequality: Mould, Acid and Glitter
How Stuff Matters
eventbrite.com.au
It's finally out! After what could only be described as a very long gestation, our edited collection is now available. It will be great for teaching about the concept of subculture and also contains interesting contemporary examples and research case studies. 1/2
Subculture in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Subculture Studies
Subculture in the 21st Century is a key text for all students of sociology and cultural studies. Drawing on case studies and supported by a range of resources on its dedicated companion website, it is...
routledge.com
A factor in this triumphant return is how platforms (Spotify) dissolve historical time, with the effect that a) nobody needs to remember that this was a band whose 'good' patch lasted circa 18 months and b) they provide the backdrop for inter-generational bonding
Luke Turner@luketurner.bsky.social · 10mo agoOasis stadium jaunt ends (for now), it has been odd seeing how massively they’re loved, and also odd that it is seen as churlish to critique it. For me, they inescapably represent the worst of the 90s, the banterous homophobia, the conservatism. It made life miserable & I struggle to get over that.
this is excellent www.e-flux.com/architecture...
Intensification - Kate Crawford - Eating the Future: The Metabolic Logic of AI Slop
AI slop isn’t invested in the order of events or even looking like reality. The slop is not the territory: it just smothers it in synthetic goop. It’s flooding the zone with AI shit.
e-flux.com
The new special edition of So Fi Zine is live! A beautiful collection of sociological fiction - HUGE thanks to the legend that is Ash @awtsn.bsky.social for making this possible and including my piece, and to everyone involved. Read here: sofizine.com/latest-editi...
Edition #17
OUT NOW! So Fi Zine #17 is a special issue created with sociologists and other academic kin at the University of Glasgow in 2025 – full of new sociological fiction, poetry and visual art. Thi…
sofizine.com
