The #SocialNetworks special issue on duality, honoring the path-breaking concept by R. Breiger is now online. It features an impressive ten contributions by world-class scholars, show-casing the power and wide applicability of the concept. 1/2

On #RoshHashanah, Jews celebrate the new year. But in preparing to make it a better one, they pause to remind themselves it might be their last. That’s good advice for anyone to follow. www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/o... @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Karl Rove in the WSJ: "‘They’ Didn’t Kill Charlie Kirk" www.wsj.com/opinion/they... JD Vance again today: "they" killed Kirk www.wsj.com/opinion/they...

This is the perfect 2025 headline... www.wired.com/story/meta-l...

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “It’s impossible to separate Trump’s actions regarding TikTok from his administration’s threats against broadcast networks (including the threats that preceded Kimmel’s ouster) and his grotesque bullying of journalists,” David French writes.

“But are there not many Fascists in your country?" "There are many who do not know they are Fascists, but will find it out when the time comes.” - Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

Our new #article with Hocking et al: Linking Social Infrastructure and Social Capital: Barangay Halls as Cornerstones of Resilience TL;DR: community spaces serve as hubs, enabling communication, coordination, and support especially in low-resource settings www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Personalist regime tries to set up another mechanism of control. Silicon Valley firms will be subject to the whims of the mad king.

“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy” V-Dem data

In case you missed this week's @thegovlab.org News that Caught Our Eye #76 on AI, democracy and governance: From @stateofnewjersey.bsky.social second-generation AI strategy to Albania’s AI “minister" and why engagement with AI matters from Danielle Allen rebootdemocracy.ai/newsthatcaug...

“Freedom is often lost under mountains of paperwork and crippling fines rather than in a cinematic showdown with a dictator.”

The story is not what Kimmel said but what others won’t say now for fear of state retribution. Authoritarian countries thrive on self censorship.

The latest from YouGov (n ~ 3k). People overall believe Jimmy Kimmel's comments were acceptable. Further, people found FCC Chair Brendan Carr's comments about planning to retaliate *unacceptable.* And overall, people strongly disapprove of canceling Kimmel's show today.yougov.com/topics/overv...

Dive into the report. There is not a single demographic or political group (including Republicans) with majority support for the cuts to Medicaid/Medicare benefits. Yet it became the law of the land. raw.githubusercontent.com/kateto/CHIP5...

Trying to keep my professional chill but I’m SO excited Carnegie Mellon is launching a cluster hire in computational humanities—MULTIPLE JOBS! 1. Asst Teaching Track Prof in Computational Humanities - apply.interfolio.com/173622 2. Asst Tenure Track Prof in CH - apply.interfolio.com/173626

The CHIP50 project recently posted a deep dive on public opinion regarding cuts in funding for Medicare and Medicaid. TLDR: cuts are very unpopular, especially with the older and the less affluent & that positions on cuts is predictive of changes in Trump approval. www.chip50.org/reports/disa...

They are literally canceling culture

To sum up: the President is not enforcing the law about TikTok access in order to structure the timing and sale of another giant social media platform to his political allies.

Just out at JOP (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....) : Why do so few working-class people hold office? It's not lack of interest. Noam Lupu and I ran 10 surveys in 8 countries and found no evidence of a social class gap in how often qualified people consider running.

I saw this yesterday and can't stop thinking about it. To see "let's just murder homeless people, that'll solve it" drop *unchallenged* on one of the most popular shows on TV and there's no consequences whatsoever... why is this our world? Disgusting, shameful, and alarming.

Yesterday's piece from @jamellebouie.net is the only high-profile piece I've seen that specifically discusses the watchlist, its effect on academics, and its effect on public attitudes toward academia as a whole. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

💙New paper!💙 How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society? With @danielredhead.bsky.social we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

My department @uwmadison.bsky.social is hiring an assistant professor with expertise in environmental politics. Send us your application. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

"Why on earth would we abandon institutions that have genuinely made America great? ... Why would we put at risk laboratories that are working to cure cancers or perfecting artificial limbs or exploring deep space or testing the limits of artificial intelligence?"

Good questions. One might add: Why are the leaders of our most important research universities almost completely absent from the public square as this existential assault on science, research, & higher education accelerates? Why do they think silence & lawsuits is enough? bsky.app/profile/mcop...

This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced a plan to end all required vaccinations. ScienceInsider reviewed the scientific literature and talked to experts to address some of the main questions the announcement raises. https://scim.ag/4mS0lDf

This is big news. www.ft.com/content/96b5...

📢 Call for abstracts for the Conference on Digital Experimentation (CODE@MIT), which takes place Nov 14-15. 📨 Submit your best work by *Sept 12th*! ide.mit.edu/events/2025-... Here are three topics we're particularly interested in getting more submissions on this year:

International enrollment also steady at Harvard, afaik US embassies abroad have been slow-walking student visas. V. limited appts. Who makes it through these barriers? The political, economic, & social elite - who send their kids to Harvard, Princeton, & Columbia www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

Come join us as Policy Director at the new Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy at Northeastern! northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...

Here's the thing to know about vaccines: They work on the population level far, far better than the individual level. A vaccinated person in an unvaccinated community is much more likely to get sick than an unvaccinated person in a vaccinated community. 1/

A bit more time if you still want to get sn eV before federal tax credit expires: www.edmunds.com/car-news/fed...

"Has a major world power ever intentionally inflicted so much damage on itself in such a constricted period of time?" www.persuasion.community/p/america-is...

Tech Policy Press is now accepting applications for our 2026 fellowship cohort. We're looking for journalists, researchers, and policy professionals to pursue independent reporting or analysis on urgent questions at the intersection of technology and democracy. Learn more below!

New analysis: Google avoided the most severe outcomes in its search antitrust case because of the growing threat from generative AI. The result is a letdown for many who hoped for accountability for Big Tech in a landmark legal battle. From me, @sisco.bsky.social & @leahnylen.bsky.social

Just a reminder that we're advertising for three faculty positions in the University of South Carolina's Department of Political Science this year. They're a department cluster hire on Problems of Democracy. All three have deadlines of September 15th. The first is an open-rank position in IR: 1/

Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be

Happy to be in beautiful Siena for the Conference on Complex Systems. We are partnering with the organizers for a Collection in npj Complexity on "The Evolving Landscape of Complex Systems." #ccs2025 I'm excited to meet everyone to talk complexity! Submit your work: www.nature.com/collections/...

The International Conference on #Complex #Networks and Their Applications will be held in Binghamton, NY, December 8–11, 2025. Deadline extended to September 14, 2025 (final). complexnetworks.org/submission/ #ComplexNetworks #Complexity

Support workers this Labor Day by donating to the Fair Employment Project! www.fairemploymentproject.org/donateorvolu...

Mamdani is a citizen just like Vance. He no more owes "gratitude" to the US than does anyone else. The suggestion is that he is some kind of second-class citizen who owes deference to the country and those born here - exactly the kind of blood-and-soil nationalism that Vance so often promotes.

RSVP for free here! www.eventbrite.com/e/eszter-har...

📊 New dataset and paper alert! We’re proud to launch the Opposition Movements and Groups (OMG) Dataset, 1789–2019: a global dataset covering 1,452 mass mobilization movements. It was just published in Comparative Political Studies. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Below follows a 🧵

Essential reading from @dziblatt.bsky.social. Hitler rose because of other politicians’ belief that “democracy’s protections could be bargained away but democracy itself could still somehow survive.” www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitl...

New, from me: America is no longer a functioning democracy. It is a competitive authoritarian system, hurtling rapidly toward authoritarianism. This was a hard piece to write but we can't move forward if we don’t acknowledge where we are. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...

The Computation+Journalism Symposium will take place on December 11-12 at the University of Miami. Join us: cplusj2025.com The deadline to submit a talk, workshop, or panel is September 7th: cplusj2025.com/submissions/ We've already announced several speakers. More coming soon!

Give @kashhill.bsky.social all the garlands for her dogged, brave reporting yet again. It's shameful, outrageous and enraging that we allow tech companies to deploy AI products that cause harm to people--teenagers, Black fathers, mentally ill persons--every day. Enough is enough.

Dear journalists: The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her. Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.

I continue to hope pundits follow Emily Oster’s outstanding advice and not make their recollected trauma from 2020 into their entire personality. Amnesty from all and to all.

"many ... wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from 'democracy' to 'authoritarianism.' Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different."