I have a new one on cloud infrastructure and capitalist instability out! doi.org/10.1080/0197...

DEADLINE EXTENSION! Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) has extended the deadline for conference Open Panel submissions until 9th February 2026. The conference is being held in Toronto, 7-10th Oct 2026. Conference Theme: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures 4sonline.org/call_for_ope...

Looking forward to reading this - subscription economy

New in SER: Nils Peters shows soaring UK startup valuations in the 2010s were less about VC power & more about a struggle for ownership. Late‑stage funds pushed into early‑stage rounds, intensifying competition & a small elite captured outsized returns. doi.org/10.1093/ser/...

Worth reading this take on forced diffusion of #genAI

Government used AI to summarize expert reports from its AI consult. I did the same by uploading them to Chat GPT/Perplexity AI to generate new summaries. I found the government consistently softened advice creating an illusion of consensus that isn’t really there. www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/02/aico...

DEADLINE EXTENSION! Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) has extended the deadline for conference Open Panel submissions until 9th February 2026. The conference is being held in Toronto, 7-10th Oct 2026. Conference Theme: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures 4sonline.org/call_for_ope...

New commentary by @cellllla.bsky.social, @perhaxis.bsky.social and myself: "The tech worker movement and the rise of the tech oligarchy". www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fabian Muniesa - 'Paranoid Finance' @ Sciences Po Paris (AxPo / CEE) 19.02.2026 www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etude...

I'm looking forward to 4S and another visit to Toronto! The 4S meetings are definitely my favorite "big" conference (and they aren't even that big), with lots of variety in content and opportunities to meet new people.

Ute Tellmann @ CSI 09.02.2026 : 'Financialization and Assetization as a Politics of Property' www.csi.minesparis.psl.eu/en/agenda-en...

Now available for pre-order and we're open for book talks to students, workshops and conferences, organisations etc. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

An observation: #genAI doesn't have any #networkeffects, as far as I can tell, which might explain its general lack of radical impact (esp. as execs have been conditioned on building strategies of market power thro network effects)

The People's Consultation on AI launched today! Whether you have in-depth expertise in AI issues, or don't consider yourself an "expert" but have firsthand experience with AI or its impacts and want to have your say, this is for you. Participate by March 15, 2026: www.peoplesaiconsultation.ca

Maybe someone with a longer memory can say whether internet companies had to tell everyone in the 1990s to use the internet or it'd turn into a bubble .... www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

The next @4sweb.bsky.social conference will be in Toronto (not the USA 😅) October 7 - 10th. Currently accepting proposals (250 word abstracts) for Open Panels, due ⭐️February 2nd⭐️ www.xcdsystem.com/4sonline/abs... #histsci #philsci #sts #medanthro

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures". Open panel submissions portal is open! ls! Deadline: 2nd February 2026 www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures". Open panel submissions portal is open! ls! Deadline: 2nd February 2026 www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

Beautiful, utter nonsense from #venturecapitalists

The mirage of #genAI? Only functionality is to legitimate layoffs & appease investors but only for a while ...

Get ready for the open call for panels next week! More soon.

In Canada, call or email Evan Solomon and demand he do his job as “Minister of AI and Digital innovation” to stop the CSAM and non-consensual porn. X should be banned in this country. 📞 416-972-2030 📧 [email protected]

Kicking off 2026 with a new piece in @sciasculture.bsky.social titled “Manufacturing the Leviathan: Palantir’s Technological Republic and the Nationalist Faction of the Tech Oligarchy". The piece is part of the forum on "Tech Oligarchy" edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social. A brief summary:

Wonder if this is real? #parasiticinnovation

For anyone looking for somewhere to submit something about #rentiership - special issue CfP on rentier capitalism || www.nature.com/collections/...

An interesting discussion of economic rents re the #technofeudalism thesis || journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

It's even simpler: accurate and inaccurate #GenAI outputs are both the effect of the same process. It's therefore hard to trust that process

Did you know 12% of the world’s top #researchers cluster in just four #cities? In our brand new paper (with Xiang & @neillee.bsky.social) in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, the “flat world” is a gated archipelago. The #GlobalSouth remains excluded. doi.org/10.1111/tran...

New OnlineFirst (OA) article: "Do Artifacts Have Political Economy?" by Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social #constructivist #politicaleconomy #assetization #LangdonWinner #RobertMoses #adtech #generativeAI #techbros journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Certainly edtech investors and assetization are big parts of education now (and shaping its future) ... you might be interested in this multiauthored piece addressing some of this if it's your direction of work too www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We're also now on Instagram: 4Son.line

#Trump is Commodus reincarnated

Anyone doing any research on the rise of speakers agencies?

#ScamStageOfCapitalism up and running

Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.

Seems that Qualtrics is doing pretty much what all those retracted studies did - making up survey answers ...

New article! "Tokenization of everything? Exploring the limits of blockchain technologies in the governance of financial markets and assets" led by Anetta Proskurovska If you want to learn about #tokenization in #finance & #financialmarkets then check it out www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

‼️ Our final issue of 2025 is out! Volume 34, Number 4 is now available, featuring intriguing discussions on interdisciplinarity, expertise, science governance, and science and technology publics. 🔗https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/current

@fvandervlist.bsky.social and I are pleased to share that our book 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴: 𝘈 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 will be published with Polity in June/Aug 2026! We are reaching out to colleagues who teach courses where the book might be of interest for an inspection copy: forms.gle/k85pemd8BTQv...

On Thursday (11 December at 5:30 p.m. CET), we are very pleased to welcome @keanbirch.bsky.social to our research colloquium at the @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social for a talk on “Do artefacts have political economy?” The talk will be commented by @cheimstaedt.bsky.social. #STS

Save the date! On Dec 11 our 'Reorganization of Knowledge Practices' Colloquium welcomes @keanbirch.bsky.social at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social who will talk about the political economy of digital artefacts. Join us live or online: t1p.de/lu554

A few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today. 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

I'm not even mad, that's amazing.

Opinions are #assets

Excited to announce @leverhulmecal.bsky.social posts - we are looking for 7 interdisciplinary fellows to join our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, closing date 30 January 2026 (1/3) durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

NEW PUBLICATION: Digital Eating special issue co-edited with @jeremybrice.bsky.social and Karin Eli in @jcultecon.bsky.social The special issue examines how digitalisation is transforming the conditions under which eating is organised, valued, and contested in everyday life,

Elites driving themselves insane through the medium of #genAI (again!)

As I said yesterday, our elites have been driven insane by #genAI (to which I would add, it's actually by money)

Check out the call for applications for the 2026 STHV STS School in Seoul!! Wish this existed when I was a graduate student/early career researcher!! #STS www.sthvschool.org