If you want to ignore the news for a moment and read something whip smart that teaches you about Alipay’s global interoperability, allowing Kakao users to pay in Japan and much else - read this 👇

October 2024, a time when a different world was possible

Our pitch for constructivist economic geographies - Rachel Phillips, Chris Meulbroek, Jamie Peck, 2025 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes. #romancelandia

New at Fight the Fire: Geez, Canada, what's your problem? Trump's ambassador pretends he doesn't understand why our neighbors are being so 'mean and nasty' (All content at Fight the Fire is free on Substack, as are subscriptions. Join us! We'd love to have you along.)

I am very pleased to see this super insightful piece by @jingwangnyu.bsky.social out in @platformsnsociety.bsky.social! It examines how the “productization of APIs allows Alipay+ to extend its platform logic into global financial infrastructures. Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/2976...

Actually very uncomplicated. Prices rise, jobs fall, all due to the tariff bonanza. The only complicated thing about it is the guy responsible is not consistent in his TACO

Readers of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Women rejoice, there's a compelling new piece interpreting the novel! Linda Flores also gives us what might be the best translation of the title - Homo convenience. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A serious and sensitive issue is having massive potholes in the streets that cause accidents - not having people praying in the streets

Convened here are @dbyler.bsky.social, @ohalpern.bsky.social, @arminb.bsky.social @melhogan.bsky.social Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, Tung-Hui Hu @susannapaasonen.bsky.social Neta Alexander, Rahul Mukherjee @andretwp.bsky.social Tomasz Hollonek & @mayameme.bsky.social. Lots to think on.

Brilliant piece on the narratives and myths propelling Putin, the incoherence of myths driving wars - and a demonstration of how vital humanities are to critical thought today www.ft.com/content/9731...

This is one of the absolute toughest things about predatory inclusion — the predation is often fun or a little useful. Criticism makes a reasonable person sound like an asshole. LowerEd weathered me for this kind of social death. So I’ll say it: your enjoyment does not matter & should not matter.

"Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society" - Tressie McMillan Cottom (2020) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

University Keywords, ed. Andy Hines, is out Sept. 9th! Here's the list of keywords ⤵️. Written by some of my favorite thinkers. Can't wait! @andyhines.bsky.social Pre-order link: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

AI is a force multiplier for scams, and there is SO much we' urgentlyneed to learn in order to know what to do about it

This may just win the tweet of 2025 award for capturing life under late stage petro-masculine fascism

Teaching the history of the African diaspora and Atlantic slavery in 2025? "Humans in Shackles: An Atlantic History of Slavery" by @araujohistorian.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social Get 30% off by using code UCPNEW at check out press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

University of Oregon is attacking its faculty and the right to tenure. Help them fight back by signing here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/fi...

Their memorials are history. Ours are political. Because as always, there are two sexualities - straight, and political. Two genders - male, and political. Two religions - Christian, and political. Two races - white, and political.

SCMS's statement was bound to be unpopular... but it comes 3 weeks late and basically says, don't fight among yourselves where the real point is about the behaviour of the board, towards its member - not other SCMS members. I like the conf. and the people so it's disappointing

Legal people, is it true that a 501(c)(3) nonprofit cannot make a statement about Palestine?

Anyone surprised by the racism, the wack economic ideas, the illiteracy, the fascism of the current US president should read this book to be reminded - these all go back to the 1980s and 90s, probably far longer. The ALL CAPS are new, not much else. It’s terrible but almost therapeutic. Must read

Sadly, this is pretty accurate. open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...

Incidentally, how the actual live book looks like!

What does it mean that there's a "streaming only" option for a book? You have to go to the publisher website to read? Sounds terrible

✨ New Essay by @greenbackbetter.bsky.social! ✨ Du Bois's "psychological wage" was never just a metaphor. Whiteness has long functioned as a rogue credit infrastructure, from racialized federal housing policy to cinematic grammar to Trump's spectacle of resentment. Please read & share! 🙏 👩‍💻 🙌

Great idea, that should help with the job numbers

Can we call this citation laundering? Using other people's work to make an author's points that have nothing to do with the original. Or just AI? Thanks for citing but my book has nothing to do with decision fatigue online

Earlier today I shared Culture Machine's CFP for a collection about shitty university enterprise software, tech vendors, etc. — an editorial project that sounds positively delightful 🤗 I also enjoy thinking about the nepotism and kickbacks behind procurement 💫

New article on the interfirm dynamics and process of creation of Pokémon media mix - what would become the largest IP in the world at least according to to this image... Highly recommend the article, open access revistes.ub.edu/index.php/JE...

"We do not picture spirits dancing among brightly-lit supermarket aisles, no matter how bountiful the fruit is there." Thoughtful meditation on design and magic (=intimacy) map.simonsarris.com/p/patina-and...

Digital payments against the convenience of cash? Read more from our editor @msteinbrg.bsky.social writing about PayPay, Japanese convenience stores, and the digital payment wars of the late 2010s. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

So there's anime content on Disney+?

50% watching anime on Netflix - is pretty big, I wish they also said how regularly they watch. It's basically global popular culture at this point. As an anime sub person I'm surprised to read "80 to 90 percent of users opt to watch anime dubbed" www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/n...

New article out! How PayPay really took off as a payment method in Japan, and why the usual explanation for events like this - convenience - might be the wrong one. Cash is convenient! Also the infrastructures of payment (convenience stores) are crucial. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New article out! How PayPay really took off as a payment method in Japan, and why the usual explanation for events like this - convenience - might be the wrong one. Cash is convenient! Also the infrastructures of payment (convenience stores) are crucial. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

What does China’s emerging governance regime for big tech look like & how does it differ from that of the US? My new article explores these questions by tracing Alibaba’s evolving ties with central and local governments, and theorizes this dynamic as a MARKET IN A FRAGMENTED STATE.

Platforms and the Moving Image book now out! Edited by Philipp Keidl and Jana Zündel, featuring the work of many amazing scholars, and mostly junior scholars, including work on Netflix, IMDb, KaraGarga, smart homes, Disney+, ALTBalaji, and much more - meson.press/books/platfo...

Platforms and the Moving Image book now out! Edited by Philipp Keidl and Jana Zündel, featuring the work of many amazing scholars, and mostly junior scholars, including work on Netflix, IMDb, KaraGarga, smart homes, Disney+, ALTBalaji, and much more - meson.press/books/platfo...

It has been so nice to see some really lovely early reader reviews come in on NetGalley for Dilemmas of Working Women I only regret that I can't share them with Fumio herself. I know she'd be so gratified to see her words touch people's hearts all over the world www.netgalley.com/catalog/book...

Magazine history: The opening of Slander (1957), one of a handful of Hollywood films responding to the post-Confidential boom in celebrity scandal magazines .

“More functionality, more features” - just what any smartphone needs these days

Great news! This awesome new @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social essay collection is now available for purchase. And - excited to announce - Dr. Dominic Nardi, one of the co-editors - will be a special guest at my @otakon.bsky.social "Studying Anime and Anime Studies" panel! amzn.to/43IgzaQ

We feed you. They hunt us.

Really really good, some of the best thinking on infrastructure out there! Especially the piece on water by my colleague Tung-Hui Hu that suggests we think about AI as we do government: just another infrastructure, not an impenetrable inevitability

New Mechademia issue out, edited by Jacqueline Berndt and all articles open access. Very nice to see out! Also, personally highly recommend the piece on web novels, publication industry + platform muse.jhu.edu/issue/53482

New Mechademia issue out, edited by Jacqueline Berndt and all articles open access. Very nice to see out! Also, personally highly recommend the piece on web novels, publication industry + platform muse.jhu.edu/issue/53482

Should CNN really dignify these revenge tactics as policy?!

The disinfo merchant podcast/influencer ecosystem hurts my heart enough that I've start wondering if, for many people, a fundamental quality of life issue is how to have a meaningful intellectual life at all.

✨Happening right now at Ritsumeikan University✨ @msteinbrg.bsky.social 's lecture on his latest research on platformed convenience Following this there will be a roundtable discussion with Dr Iwabuchi Koichi